Germany ordered the closure of all three Iranian Consulates in the country on Thursday in response to the execution of Iranian-German prisoner Jamshid Sharmahd, who lived in the United States and was kidnapped in Dubai in 2020 by Iranian security forces.
Sharmahd, 69, was put to death in Iran on Monday on terrorism charges, which Germany, the U.S. and international rights groups dismissed as a sham trial. The decision to close the Iranian Consulates in Frankfurt, Hamburg and Munich, announced by Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, leaves the Islamic Republic with only its embassy in Berlin.
“The execution of a European citizen is seriously harming relations between Iran and the European Union,” EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said earlier this week, warning that the EU will now consider “targeted and significant measures” against Iran.
Baerbock noted that the EU had already imposed a new set of sanctions in mid-October, and she is pushing for Iran’s Revolutionary Guard to be put on a list of terror organizations. She accused the Iranian government of knowing “above all the language of blackmail, threat and violence,” and said Berlin will continue its “tireless work” to get other Germans released who are being held in Iran.
Sharmahd was one of several Iranian dissidents abroad in recent years who were either tricked or kidnapped and brought back to Iran. Germany’s decision to shut down all of Iran’s consulates represents a major diplomatic downgrade, signaling the deteriorating relations between the two countries in the wake of this case.
