On Thursday, Germany announced it would close Iranian consulates in the country in response to the execution of German-Iranian dissident Jamshid Sharmahd.
Speaking to reporters in New York, Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said Sharmahd was executed despite Berlin’s intense diplomatic efforts at the highest political level.
“We repeatedly made it clear to Tehran that the execution of a German citizen would have serious consequences, so I have decided to close Iran’s general consulates in Frankfurt am Main, Munich, and Hamburg,” she said.
Sharmahd, a 69-year-old German-Iranian national, was executed in Iran on charges of planning terrorist attacks, which he denied.
He was accused of leading a United States (U.S.) – based group known as “Tondar,” which seeks to restore the Iranian monarchy that was overthrown by the Islamic Revolution of 1979. Iranian authorities claimed the group planned numerous terrorist acts against Iran at the behest of Western and U.S. intelligence agencies.
