The Iranian Resistance has urged Germany to shut down the Iranian Regime’s embassy for its role in terror and espionage and praised the German police for raids on Iranian spies, Iran Focus reports.
The German office of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) released a statement early Wednesday morning praising German authorities for their Tuesday raids on the homes and workplaces of 10 people who are suspected of spying on behalf of the Iranian Regime and its secret services.
The statement from the NCRI’s German office read: “The revelation of this espionage and terrorist network in Germany clearly reaffirms the reality that the Iranian regime has exploited the policy of appeasement to expand its terrorist and spy network in Germany in recent years. These activities not only endanger the security of Iranian refugees in Europe, but also pose a serious threat to the security of Germany and other European countries.”
Although no one has been arrested yet, the individuals in question are suspected of spying on individuals and locations in Germany for the terrorist Quds Force branch of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC). Frauke Koehler, a spokesperson for the Federal Prosecutors Office of Germany in Karlsruhe, said:
“We believe the suspects spied on institutions and persons in Germany on behalf of an intelligence unit associated with Iran.”
The raids followed an investigation and tip-off by Germany’s domestic intelligence agency.
The NCRI’s German office also warned that the Iranian Regime’s Berlin embassy is crucial to Iran’s espionage and terror network in Germany; a fact underscored by the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV) in its latest report. The BfV report read:
“The official Bureau of the Ministry of Intelligence and Security in the Iranian Embassy in Berlin plays an important role in surveillance activities of the secret services. In addition to conducting its independent intelligence activities, it [provides] support to activities that are directed by the headquarters of the MOIS in Tehran.”
Much of this surveillance for the MOIS focuses on members of the NCRI and the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) in Germany. The NCRI’s German office wrote:
“The only way to put an end to the ominous phenomenon of terrorism by the Iranian regime in Germany is the closure of its embassy. This is a center for expanding terrorism and fundamentalism. The Iranian regime’s agents and spies should be expelled from Germany.”
Last April, federal prosecutors filed charges against two men suspected of spying on the opposition People’s Mujahedin of Iran (MEK) on behalf of Iranian intelligence. The Paris-based MEK is an Islamist-Marxist-feminist militant group seeking to overthrow Iran’s theocratic government. The Iranian government blamed the group for stirring up unrest earlier this month in Iran.
Formerly listed as a terrorist organization by the EU and United States, the MEK has also been accused of carrying out covert operations on behalf of Israel and the United States. Iran has been accused of assassinating multiple dissents, mostly Kurds and MEK members, throughout Europe.
Last month, Germany summoned Iran’s ambassador to warn the Regime against spying on those with close ties to Israel, calling such acts an “unacceptable” breach of German law. News of the meeting came out in media reports on January 9 after a Pakistani man’s appeal of his conviction in March of spying for Iran was rejected by the German Constitutional Court.
Mustafa Haidar Syed-Naqfi was convicted of gathering intelligence on Reinhold Robbe, the former head of the German-Israel Friendship Society and an Israeli-French economics professor in Paris, for Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps. After the conviction, Robbe accused Tehran of plotting to have him murdered and demanded that Berlin call Iran to account, according to German media.
“Spying on people and institutions with special ties to the state of Israel on German soil is an egregious violation of German law,” a ministry official said on January 9, noting that Iranian Ambassador Ali Majedi was summoned and given a warning on December 22.
The official said Philipp Ackermann, acting director of the Foreign Ministry’s political section, told Majedi that “such activities would not be tolerated and were completely unacceptable.” Germany’s Sueddeutsche Zeitung reported that the Iranian ambassador was warned that spying on Israel would “have negative consequences on bilateral relations between Germany and Iran.”