BERLIN: German Chancellor Olaf Scholz strongly criticized the Iranian government Saturday for its bloody crackdown on protests in the country said Germany stands “shoulder to shoulder with the Iranian people.”
Scholz said the ongoing protests sparked by the Sept. 16 death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini following her detention by Iran’s morality police were no longer “merely a question of dress codes” but had evolved into a fight for freedom and justice.
The protests have grown into one of the largest sustained challenges to Iran’s theocracy since the chaotic months after its 1979 Islamic Revolution.
“We can barely begin to imagine how much courage this takes,” Scholz said in his weekly video address. “More than 300 killed, dozens of death sentences and more than 14,000 arrests. So far. Those who demonstrate against oppression in Iran risk their lives, and often also the lives of their loved ones – and face the prospect of torture and decades in prison.”
Hundreds of thousands of people in Germany with Iranian roots fear for their relatives and are “appalled and disgusted by what the Mullah regime is doing to the demonstrators,” the chancellor continued. “It is clear that the Iranian government is solely responsible for this spate of violence.”
Scholz said Iran would receive additional sanctions for its brutal crackdown and its decision to send hundreds of drones to Russia for use in the war in Ukraine. European Union foreign ministers are expected to agree on additional sanctions when they meet on Monday.
Germany’s foreign minister on Friday rejected a complaint by her Iranian counterpart that she was taking an “interventionist” stance over protests in Iran and pushed back against his pledge of a “firm” response.
Earlier this month, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian warned his German counterpart, Annalena Baerbock, that she was taking an “interventionist” stance over protests in Iran. Baerbock had made a speech to the German parliament in which she said Berlin would not let up in pursuing further sanctions against Tehran over the protest crackdown.
Responding to Amirabdollahian’s threat of consequences for Germany’s position, Scholz said, “What kind of government does it make you if you shoot at your own citizens? Those who act in such a way must expect us to push back.”
German leader Olaf Scholz: Iran can expect more EU sanctions
https://arab.news/5ftwj
German leader Olaf Scholz: Iran can expect more EU sanctions
- Iran to receive additional sanctions for its brutal crackdown and its decision to send hundreds of drones to Russia for use in the war in Ukraine
- EU foreign ministers are expected to agree on additional sanctions when they meet on Monday
Somali president visits city claimed by breakaway region
MOGADISHU: Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud on Friday visited a provincial capital claimed by the breakaway region of Somaliland -- the first visit there by a sitting president in over 40 years.
The visit to Las Anod, the administrative capital of the Sool region, comes amid heightened diplomatic tensions in the Horn of Africa after Israel officially recognised Somaliland, drawing strong opposition from Mogadishu.
Mohamud was attending the inauguration of the president of the newly created Northeast State, which became Somalia's sixth federal state in August.
It was the first visit by a Somali president since 1984.
Somalia is a federation of semi-autonomous states, some of which have fraught relations with the central government in Mogadishu.
The Northeast State comprises the regions of Sool, Sanaag and Cayn, all territories Somaliland claims as integral to its borders.
Somaliland had controlled Las Anod since 2007 but was forced to withdraw in 2023 after violent clashes with Somali forces and pro-Mogadishu militias left scores dead.
Mohamud's visit "is a symbol of strengthening the unity and efforts of the federal government to enforce the territorial unity of the Somali country and its people", the Somali president's office said.
