The Islamic Center Hamburg (IZH) is considered an extended arm of the Iranian mullah regime – and is now being targeted by the traffic light coalition. The SPD, Greens and FDP call on the federal government to “examine whether and how the Islamic Center Hamburg can be closed as the hub of the Iranian regime’s operations in Germany,” according to an application for the Bundestag, which is available to WELT.
According to the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, the IZH is an “important Iranian propaganda center in Europe”. The domestic intelligence service has mentioned the center in its annual report since 1993 due to Islamist aspirations. A state treaty has existed in Hamburg for ten years with the Islamic umbrella organization Schura, of which the IZH is also a member. This was initiated by the former CDU mayor Ole von Beust and completed in 2012 by the then mayor and current Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD).
The deputy head of the IZH, Seyed Soliman Mousavifar, traveled to Iran last week. Mousavifar was expelled from Germany in the summer for allegedly supporting militant Shiite extremist and terrorist organizations. Iranians in exile living in Germany have long accused the Iranian regime of using the IZH to spy on members of the democratic opposition.
However, the wording in the traffic light application to check whether and how the center can be closed falls short of the demands of top politicians from the coalition parties. FDP General Secretary Bijan Djir-Sarai and Green Party leader Omid Nouripour had recently explicitly called for the IZH to be closed. Nouripour spoke of the “regime’s most important espionage network in Germany”, whose activity must be ended.
In addition, the motion “support the protest movement in Iran, increase pressure on the regime in Tehran” does not represent a fundamental reorientation in Iran policy. Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock (Greens) announced two weeks ago: “With a state that is proceeding in such an inhuman way, there can be no ‘business as usual’.” Most of the demands from the SPD, Greens and FDP now only confirm the policies that have already been implemented. For example, it says that the “already increased political and diplomatic pressure on the regime” should be maintained.
The federal government is demanding that all German citizens should leave Iran. The background is the harsh, violent crackdown on the system-critical protests. “They don’t want temporary changes to the system, they want the system to be abolished,” said Bijan Djir-Sarai, FDP general secretary.
Source: WORLD
Appropriate steps should be prepared at the level of the European Union “against additional persons responsible” for the violent action against demonstrators, according to an application. The group of visa bans should be expanded, and the listing of relatives of those responsible should also be checked. Baerbock had already announced this. Since the beginning of the protests and their bloody crackdown, the EU has only imposed sanctions on eleven Iranian people and four organizations. Who should be specifically sanctioned is left open in the application of the traffic light coalition.
The application was prepared by the foreign politicians of the SPD, Greens and FDP parliamentary groups and still has to be approved by the parliamentary groups on Tuesday afternoon. The foreign policy spokesmen for the SPD and the Greens, Nils Schmid and Jürgen Trittin, are not known for taking a hard stance on the Iranian regime.
In October, the federal party conference of the Greens had called for a review of the classification of the Revolutionary Guards and Basij militias, the groups primarily responsible for the violence in Iran, as terrorist organizations. This requirement is not reflected in the traffic light application. It only makes a non-specific request to “increase the pressure on the Iranian Revolutionary Guards with suitable means”, and the “use of additional restrictive means” should also be examined.
The characterization of the Iranian mullah regime is also noteworthy. The traffic light describes the regime in the application as “conservative-authoritarian” – the word “Islamist” does not appear. For a government that promotes terrorism in the Middle East, brutally oppresses its own people and especially women, religious, ethnic and sexual minorities as well as members of the opposition, and threatens Israel with annihilation, this designation can certainly be seen as trivializing.
The traffic light is also sticking to its previous policy on the controversial nuclear agreement. “A failure of the negotiations and a nuclear-armed Iran, especially under this regime, would be an immense and unpredictable danger for the entire region, which would particularly affect our partner Israel,” the motion says.
FDP General Secretary Djir-Sarai recently spoke out in favor of suspending the negotiations. The agreement is intended to prevent Iran from building a nuclear bomb, but would allow the regime billions to flow through sanctions relief. Israel, which is endangered by Iranian threats of annihilation, sees no protection against a nuclear bomb in the agreement and fears even more financing of Palestinian terrorist organizations by Iran.
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