BERLIN: Iran’s ambassador to Germany was summoned by the foreign ministry on Tuesday after the arrest in Denmark of a man suspected of spying on Jewish targets in Berlin for Tehran.
“We will not tolerate any threat to Jewish life in Germany,” the ministry said in a post on X announcing the summoning.
It added that the allegations needed to be “thoroughly investigated.”
The Danish suspect, identified only as Ali S., was arrested in the city of Aarhus by local police on Thursday, the German federal prosecutor’s office said in a statement earlier on Tuesday.
The man was “strongly suspected of having worked for an intelligence service,” they said.
Ali S. had in early 2025 “received an order from an Iranian intelligence service to collect information on Jewish localities and specific Jewish individuals in Berlin.”
To this end, he allegedly scoped out three properties in June.
The suspected reconnaissance work was “presumably in preparation of further intelligence activities in Germany, possibly including terrorist attacks on Jewish targets,” the statement said.
Speaking on a visit to Odesa in Ukraine, German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul said that, if confirmed, the incident “would once again underline that Iran is a threat to Jews all over the world.”
According to German weekly Der Spiegel, the suspect had taken photos of buildings including the seat of the German-Israeli Society in Berlin.
Investigators believe Ali S. was working on behalf of the Quds Force, the foreign operations arm of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, Der Spiegel reported.
Germany has been on high alert for possible attacks against Jewish people since Palestinian militant group Hamas’s assault on Israel on October 7, 2023, which triggered the war in Gaza.
In September, German police shot dead a young Austrian man known to have had ties to radical Islam as he was preparing to carry out an attack on the Israeli consulate in Munich.
German authorities have also been on alert for potential Iranian espionage activity on their soil.
A German-Iranian national was jailed in late 2023 over a plot to attack a synagogue in the western German city of Bochum in 2022.
Authorities said the plot was planned with the help of “Iranian state agencies.”
Berlin summons Iranian ambassador over arrest of alleged spy
https://arab.news/bgvjw
Berlin summons Iranian ambassador over arrest of alleged spy
- The Danish suspect, identified only as Ali S., was arrested in the city of Aarhus by local police on Thursday
- The man was “strongly suspected of having worked for an intelligence service,” they said
India, Arab League target $500bn in trade by 2030
- It was the first such gathering of India–Arab FMs since the forum’s inauguration in 2016
- India and Arab states agree to link their startup ecosystems, cooperate in the space sector
NEW DELHI: India and the Arab League have committed to doubling bilateral trade to $500 billion by 2030, as their top diplomats met in New Delhi for the India–Arab Foreign Ministers’ Meeting.
The foreign ministers’ forum is the highest mechanism guiding India’s partnership with the Arab world. It was established in March 2002, with an agreement to institutionalize dialogue between India and the League of Arab States, a regional bloc of 22 Arab countries from the Middle East and North Africa.
The New Delhi meeting on Saturday was the first gathering in a decade, following the inaugural forum in Bahrain in 2016.
India’s Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar said in his opening remarks that the forum was taking place amid a transformation in the global order.
“Nowhere is this more apparent than in West Asia or the Middle East, where the landscape itself has undergone a dramatic change in the last year,” he said. “This obviously impacts all of us, and India as a proximate region. To a considerable degree, its implications are relevant for India’s relationship with Arab nations as well.”
Jaishankar and his UAE counterpart co-chaired the talks, which aimed at producing a cooperation agenda for 2026-28.
“It currently covers energy, environment, agriculture, tourism, human resource development, culture and education, amongst others,” Jaishankar said.
“India looks forward to more contemporary dimensions of cooperation being included, such as digital, space, start-ups, innovation, etc.”
According to the “executive program” released by India’s Ministry of External Affairs, the roadmap agreed by India and the League outlined their planned collaboration, which included the target “to double trade between India and LAS to US$500 billion by 2030, from the current trade of US$240 billion.”
Under the roadmap, they also agreed to link their startup ecosystems by facilitating market access, joint projects, and investment opportunities — especially health tech, fintech, agritech, and green technologies — and strengthen cooperation in space with the establishment of an India–Arab Space Cooperation Working Group, of which the first meeting is scheduled for next year.
Over the past few years, there has been a growing momentum in Indo-Arab relations focused on economic, business, trade and investment ties between the regions that have some of the world’s youngest demographics, resulting in a “commonality of circumstances, visions and goals,” according to Muddassir Quamar, associate professor at the School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University.
“The focus of the summit meeting was on capitalizing on the economic opportunities … including in the field of energy security, sustainability, renewables, food and water security, environmental security, trade, investments, entrepreneurship, start-ups, technological innovations, educational cooperation, cultural cooperation, youth engagement, etc.,” Quamar told Arab News.
“A number of critical decisions have been taken for furthering future cooperation in this regard. In terms of opportunities, there is immense potential.”
