In view of the mass protests in Iran, the German government has come under criticism from opposition groups and the German left. Not just Federal Chancellor Scholz, but above all Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, who has been accused by the left and feminist side of pursuing appeasement and of having given up the „feminist foreign policy“ she propagated despite the massive participation of women in the protests . The criticism stretches from Jungle World to taz. A kind of exemplary general reckoning with the German and thus indirectly also the European Iran policy of the last decades is now being published in Jungle World. The movement in Iran would be  a revolutionary uprising and not mass protests and the German government should now seize the opportunity for regime change and eliminate the Islamic Republic of Iran, in the article branded as the „Islamic State“, prevent Iran from becoming a nuclear power and bring freedom. Here is the general statement:

„Iran: A Revolutionary Uprising

Guest post by Danyal Casar

While a revolutionary uprising is taking place in Iran, German politicians are trying to appease Remember the days of November 2019, when anger at the daily regime of impoverishment escalated to a revolutionary uprising in Iran, which the regime could only counter with cast lead and hundreds of deaths. In those days, one of the daily news outlets, Karin Senz, recommended leaving the opponents of the regime alone with their murderers; to think of them and to care, but to endure in silence. Europe, according to the ARD correspondent, must concentrate primarily on bringing the Khomeinists‘ blackmail written down in the treaty, i.e. the reduction of uranium enrichment against business, to bear. This requires “great (European) diplomats”. After the regime declared bloody „victory“ over the „enemy conspiracy“ in November 2019 and declared the unrest in Iran over by identifying and arresting „the ringleaders“, the German Foreign Office broke its days-long silence and issued a warning – without approaching the butchers: „The right to peaceful protest must be protected.“ The European Union was also adamantly silent until then.

A matter of the heart: reconciliation

 It still seems to be a matter close to the heart for some Germans to reconcile the Iranians with the „Islamic State“ (the title of a collection of lectures by the founder of the state, Ruhollah Khomeini). Jörg Brase, ZDF correspondent, is whispering that there could be „potential“ in Iran to „discuss reforms in parliament“. While slogans such as „Death to the Islamic Republic“ are being shouted in every province of Iran, Brase thinks he knows one thing: „Many people want reforms“. In contrast to previous years of demonstrative cold-bloodedness, the Federal Foreign Office and the German parties are boasting a torrent of moral partisanship for women in Iran these days. But contrary to what has been claimed, the women in Iran are not demanding that the misogynist regime recognize their “indisputable human rights”, nor is it being demanded, as the German reporting undeterredly claims, that the state, i.e. the murderer himself, prevent the death of Mahsa Amini have to enlighten. In not a single one of the slogans that are shouted does the Islamic State, its institutions and representatives, neither reformers nor archconservatives, serve as an appellate body. The death of this state beast is yelled at.

Definitely keep negotiating

 The essence of the new German „criticism of the regime“ was declared by Annalena Baerbock in the Bundestag’s „Current Hour“: that „we continue to negotiate about the JCPoA“, which obviously means nothing other than that they impose personal sanctions that serve the interests of the regime as all and hardly harm German industry, intends to exchange it for the current sanctions, which harm both the regime and industry much more.

The talkative demonstration of moral partisanship belies the fact that absolutely nothing concrete is being done that could do justice to one’s own possibilities. As if there were ways to be found how to break through the leaden barrier to communication. But even the long overdue end of the collaboration with the agencies of the regime in Europe, such as the „Imam Khomeini Mosque“ in Hamburg, from which exiled Iranians are threatened and worn down with lawsuits, is still pending. How inconsequential the „regime criticism“ by the Foreign Office is is revealed, for example, in the impunity for which everyone is responsible in view of the actions of the Khamenei regime in Iraq. Europe remained disinterested and apathetic as the revolutionary uprising of Iraqi youth against rampant corruption and militia mischief was mercilessly crushed by the death squads of Pasdaran General Qasem Soleimani.

 The highest-ranking official of the United Nations in Iraq, Jeanine Antoinette Hennis-Plasschaer, set the European course in those days. She expressed her concern that the ongoing protests could damage the Iraqi economy. Attacks on Kurdistan Like the Turkish regime, the Khamenei regime continues to terrorize Kurdistan Iraq with impunity, where the Kurdistan Democratic Party-Iran (DPK-I) has its party structures. In 1989, Abdul Rahman Ghassemlou, the chairman of the DPK-I, denounced by Khomeini as the „party of the devil“, was murdered in Vienna; 1992 in Berlin his successor Sadegh Sharafkandi as well as the representatives of the party in French and German exile, Fattah Abdoli and Homayoun Ardalan. The organizer of the execution of the murder order from Tehran, Kazem Darabi, had been entrusted with a relevant mosque in Berlin for years; under the eyes of the German authorities, he could threaten exiled enemies of the Khomeinist regime with impunity. It would at least be the worst of penance not to tolerate the comrades of the DPK-I being massacred by kamikazed drones in Kurdistan-Iraq.

„Critical Dialogues“

In 43 years, during which virtue guards terrorized women with broken glass and acid, and imprisoned women were forced to denounce themselves as „whores,“ Germans from Hans-Dietrich Genscher to Frank-Walter Steinmeier waited to engage in a „critical dialogue“ with the Khomeinist Slaughterers one after the other. Concrete solidarity, however, would first have to recognize and embrace the demand for an end to the Islamic State in Iran. The Germans‘ notorious lie – „We don’t know what would happen“ if the Islamofascist dummy „Islamic Republic“ falls – is a mockery of those brave ones who are unequivocal about what they don’t want: They don’t want a more aggressively anti-Israeli regime and projective crisis exorcism. They don’t want a militaristic-occult regime made up of clergy and a militant-mafiot „Army of the Guardians of the Islamic Revolution“ that has made the national economy its prey. And they do not want a regime in which the subjugation of women is a sacred pillar of the community.

„Stabilization Factor“

All this is nothing new. In recent years, when the German Foreign Office contributed to the Khomeinist despotism of becoming a „stabilizing factor in the region“ (S. Gabriel), the „preservation of payment channels“ as a European „priority“ (H. Maas) and resistance to US While American Iran sanctions were declared an „act of European sovereignty“ (the French, British and German counterparts), Iran has been rocked by insurgency time and time again. Countless mullahs‘ facilities have been burned down in recent years, as have the oversized street decorations of pious verses, martyr worship, anti-Israel threats of annihilation and the grimaces of Ali Khamenei, Ruhollah Khomeini and Qasem Soleimani. The slogans are the same to this day: „The regime says America is our enemy, but it lies, the regime itself is our enemy“, „Reformers, principalists – your castling is over“ or „Death to the Velayat-e Faqih“.*

To speak only of protests has long misunderstood the reality in Iran. Rather, we are witnessing a revolutionary uprising. Since the death of Mahsa Amini on September 16, there have been serious confrontations with the repressive machinery in all 31 provinces of Iran. They continue to this day from Kurdistan to Khuzestan, from Tehran to Mashhad, under the threat of death. The regime has recently stated openly that its militias established in Iraq and elsewhere will take over the defense of the „Islamic Revolution“ as soon as the „internal forces“ threaten to fail. Neither the Russian despotism, which is terrorizing Ukraine these days with Iranian kamikaze drones, nor China will be passive in watching their partner fall into crime. Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Ejei, the highest judge in the Islamic State, recently said, and certainly not the only one, that the revolutionaries are „agents of our enemies“ – the death sentence has been pronounced on them.

Promises of freedom beyond Iran’s borders

And yet the insurgency against the Islamic State in Iran, which since 1979 has been a dark inspiration for Islamic counter-revolutionaries from Afghanistan to Egypt, is a promise of freedom far beyond Iran’s borders. Under the slogans „Woman, life, freedom“** and „I will kill the one who killed my sister“, the revolutionaries in Iran, both women and men, decided against the regressive nature of the „Islamic Republic“ as an anti-Jewish and misogynist men’s association objected. It is also the first revolutionary uprising ever that began as a feminist protest. Should the uprising be crushed, which is taken for granted by everyone from Jörg Brase to the regime lobbyist in the Foreign Office Adnan Tabatabai, the further prospect is not reforms, but a deadly peace. In this sense: woman, life, freedom – death to the Islamic State.

* With „Velayat-e Faqih“ Khomeini described the total validity of the guardianship in all spheres of the state. In his main publication, „Islamic State,“ Khomeini spoke of purging the theological seminaries of the quietists and turning the mosques into barracks, the weekly Khutbah sermon into a rallying cry, and the worshipers into battalions. He reiterated that the establishment of such an „Islamic State“ would require mass deaths. „Islam has exterminated many tribes,“ Khomeini said, for bringing corruption to Muslims and damaging „the interests of the Islamic State.“

** The slogan was coined by Kurdish feminists, popularized by those militants from Kurdistan-Syria who are still being threatened with death by Turkish artillery these days. Back in 2015, during protests in Kurdistan-Iran in response to the death of a young woman named Farinaz Khosravani in Mahabad, protesters chanted “Jin, Jiyan, Azadi” (“Woman, Life, Freedom”).

https://jungle.world/blog/von-tunis-nach-teheran/2022/10/iran-eine-revolutionaere-erhebung

It’s interesting: It’s clear how business circles think about it. They are primarily concerned with profit and human rights do not play a role there. Irrespective of whether it is a dictatorship or a democracy, only the investment climate, the rule of law, planning security and stability are of interest and as the graveyard peace and torture chamber of a dictatorship can also be perceived as stability, whereby corruption, despite all compliance rules, does not even has to be an obstacle, insofar as it is not too excessive and the US or other competitiors uses it to damage the image and the business of the German or European competitor. Furthermore, whether one could be sanctioned by other states, such as the USA, and whether access to the US market would be restricted, which can then be more important. Otherwise, business representatives always act according to Lenin’s  slogan: „The capitalists will also sell us the ropes by which we will hang them“.

In the case of political representatives, however, the question arises as to what their motives are, although of course the promotion of the world export champion Germany and its economy, as well as the supply of raw materials is an important motive, but not only. What you dare against Russia, you don’t dare against Iran. However, the article remains unclear as to what measures should be taken. Opening communication channels is very abstract and Elon Musk and Starlink probably have more to offer than technically lagging behind Germany. Should the Germans organize regime change through the BND and would the German intelligence agency even be able to do that—well, maybe with the Americans, French, the British, Israel? But even the Israeli Jerusalem Post does not believe that the current movement will be successful. Maybe the next time after Khameini’s death, so the JP comment. New sanctions and what sort of? Are the current sanctions against Iran not enough for the critics and are the sanctions against leading representatives of the morality police, which the EU has just decided, not enough? Should the negotiations for a new Iran deal be stopped? And what can Germany do if Biden is perhaps aiming for a new JOAPC and is already considering whether the USA should get oil from Iran and Venezuela again instead from Russia? What I don’t quite understand either: 4-5 billion euros trade with Iran is not a big deal for German industry either and can easily do without it, just as Germany hardly gets any oil and gas from Iran – or do the want that now after things are difficult with Qatar and the first gas should not come until 2026? Or are German politicans more afraid of „stability“ and against a regime change because of perhaps higher energy prices and inflation in the current energy war with Russia and the coming gas winter and hot autumn? But before the Ukraine war, that wasn’t such an important calculation. Yes, the behavior of the Europeans, especially the German politicians, towards Iran differs noticeably from the USA, Israel and Great Britain, although the latter are of course also linked to the oil multinationals and the legendary Seven Sisters. Is it the still not overcome belief in change through trade and a certain nostalgia for the Orient comparable to the Russophile romanticism of Tauroggen, Rapallo, Black Reichswehr of German East policy fans or on the part of the AfD nostalgia for Rappalo and the Hitler-Stalin Pact, the educated bourgeois respect for an old civilization, a hidden Teutonic-archaic Indo-German Aryan cult and the hope that a reformed mullahs‘ regime would not be so dangerous, yes maybe renounce nuclear weapons and even as a geopolitical SCO ally of a more Eurasian orientation could bring gains in terms of European sovereignty over the USA? Or is it conservative and/ or evangelical angry white man machos who, like their mullahmacho soul mates, think that feminism, women’s rights and liberalism are the cultural decline of any people, birth rate and of any civilization and that women shouldn’t behave like that only because they have to wear a headscarf? Or post-modern, post-colonial gender feminists who see the headscarf as an anti-colonial, emancipatory symbol of ultimate women´s liberation and tell you that the word Islam means peace. Or disguised anti-American anti-imperialists or right-wing anti-American imperialists who never got over the Mossadegh trauma and see the mullahs as comrades-in-arms, perhaps still of the German Jihad Max Oppenheim brand? Or do they consider the protesters to be undisciplined, spontaneous chaotic people who have no program and would only create a new Syria with the accompanying waves of refugees or, like previous mass protests, will again be unsuccessful, as even the Jerusalem Post believes, which is why they don´t want to upset the mullahs who are perceived as being more sustainable? Depending on the political representative, it is probably a mixed calculation with different priorities. What is striking, however, is that Biden and the USA have been reticent, at least officially, so far. As we are told that the Iran deal negotations are in „a decisive phase“, Biden as Baerbock react very soft and vague:

„Biden in a statement said he was “gravely concerned” about reports of intensifying repression of protestors, vowing a swift response. 

“This week, the United States will be imposing further costs on perpetrators of violence against peaceful protestors,” said Biden. “We will continue holding Iranian officials accountable and supporting the rights of Iranians to protest freely.”

It is unclear what measures Biden is considering to place on Iran, which is already under crippling US sanctions for its nuclear program.

White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre earlier on Monday said the US will continue negotiations with Iran to salvage a deal over its nuclear program despite the tensions and “problems with Iran’s behavior.” 

„As long as we believe pursuing JCPOA [Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action] talks is in the US national security interests, we will do so, and so at the same time, we will continue to use other tools to address other problems with Iran’s behavior,“ said the spokeswoman.“

Biden vows swift response to Iran over protests… | Rudaw.net

That doesn’t stop Khameni from blaming the US and Israel for masterminding the mass protests, not the poor living conditions, costs for the expansion wars in the Shiite Crescent and religious repression in Iran. In any case, neither Khameini nor Raisi have announced or threatened to end the Iran deal negotiations because of the mass protests that in their rhetoric were masterminded by the US and Israel. And according to the Tehran Times the German Embassy was also a mastermind.

By Mehran Shamsuddin

German embassy is the instigator of unrest in Iran

1. Politics

September 28, 2022 – 20:40

TEHRAN – Over the last weeks, Iran has been rocked by a wave of riots and unrest that inflicted considerable damage to public and private properties. Several European countries through a European embassy in Tehran are involved in inciting these riots, the Tehran Times can reveal.

Nearly two weeks ago, a young Iranian girl died in police custody under ambiguous circumstances. The girl, Mahsa Amini, collapsed as a result of a stroke suffered in the custody, according to footage released by police authorities. The incident caused huge anger and sorrow in Iran, prompting the country’s highest political echelons to highlight the need to investigate the incident. 

Iranian President Ayatollah Seyed Ebrahim ordered an investigation into the tragic death of Amini. He also spoke to the family of Amini to offer condolences and assure them about following up on the case. 

“I learned about this incident during my trip to Uzbekistan, and I immediately ordered my colleagues to investigate the matter especially. I assure you that I will demand this issue from the responsible institutions so that its dimensions are clarified and no rights are violated,” President Raisi told the family, adding, “Your daughter is like my own daughter, and I feel that this incident happened to one of my loved ones. Please accept my condolences.”

Some Iranians staged some protests in the wake of the incident. And authorities sought to address their concerns and soothe them. Soon the peaceful protests turned violent and led to the killing of many police officers. According to the unofficial toll, more than 40 people were killed in riots over the last two weeks, with dozens of public and private properties burned.

The Tehran Times has learned that four European countries and an Asian one have been involved in inciting riots and protests. According to information received by the Tehran Times, Germany has been at the center of the European efforts to fan the flames of the protests. And the German embassy in Tehran has served as a coordinating center for the other European embassies in Tehran involved in these efforts.

The German embassy established contacts with some public intellectuals and scoundrels as well as members of the Amini family, the Tehran Times has learned. According to information received by the Tehran Times, the German embassy contacted the Amini family and encouraged them to speak out against the police and reach out to foreign media outlets to keep the death of Mahsa Amini in the news. 

The embassy also promised members of the Amini family that Germany will protect them, including by giving them German citizenship, in case they spoke up and were prosecuted by the Iranian authorities. 

In addition to Germany, a number of Dutch nationals have been involved in Iran’s unrest and some of them have even been arrested, the Tehran Times has learned. These nationals played an “active role” in the unrest, according to the information received by the Tehran Times. 

This is not the first time the European embassies in Tehran get involved in the unrest in Iran. Earlier in early 2020, then-British Ambassador to Iran Rob Macaire was briefly arrested by Iran’s security forces in the midst of a gathering in front of Amir Kabir University in Tehran. He was accused at the time of meddling in Iran’s internal affairs by instigating unrest. 

https://www.tehrantimes.com/news/477132/German-embassy-is-the-instigator-of-unrest-in-Iran