Germany Says Iran Should Change its ‘Dangerous Role’ in Region

German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas and his Israeli counterpart, Gabi Ashkenazi, greet each other in Jerusalem, Israel, June 10, 2020. Reuters / Ronen Zvulun
German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas and his Israeli counterpart, Gabi Ashkenazi, greet each other in Jerusalem, Israel, June 10, 2020. Reuters / Ronen Zvulun
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Germany Says Iran Should Change its ‘Dangerous Role’ in Region

German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas and his Israeli counterpart, Gabi Ashkenazi, greet each other in Jerusalem, Israel, June 10, 2020. Reuters / Ronen Zvulun
German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas and his Israeli counterpart, Gabi Ashkenazi, greet each other in Jerusalem, Israel, June 10, 2020. Reuters / Ronen Zvulun

German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas agreed with his Israeli counterpart Thursday that an effort must be made to extend a weapon embargo on Iran, while stressing Germany still sees the landmark 2015 deal between Tehran and world powers as the best way to prevent the country from obtaining a nuclear weapon.

With a current UN arms embargo on Iran due to expire on Oct. 18, Israeli Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi told reporters in Berlin an extension was needed to prevent Iran from getting “more advanced weapons systems and spreading them around the Middle East.”

“We would like to see the European countries, not just Germany, preventing it,” The Associated Press quoted him as saying. “It's not helpful for the stability of the region.”

Ashkenazi was in Berlin to attend a two-day meeting of European foreign ministers at the invitation of Germany, which holds the European Union's rotating presidency.

The United States wants a full extension of the embargo on Iran, which would almost certainly be vetoed by Russia and China in the UN Security Council, Maas said.

Germany and others are currently trying to find some middle ground that would meet with Russian and Chinese approval — and not be vetoed by the US in the Security Council.

“We are trying to reach a diplomatic solution so that there will be an arms embargo on Iran in the future,” Maas said.

At the same time, he said Germany still sees the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action signed with Iran in 2015, promising the country economic incentives in exchange for curbs on its nuclear program, the best deal to prevent the country from developing an atomic weapon.

Israel is against the deal, and the US pulled out unilaterally in 2018, leaving the others involved — Germany, France, Britain, Russia and China — struggling to keep it alive.

Maas said concerns outside the JCPOA, like Iran's ballistic missile program and influence in Syria, Lebanon and Iraq, need to be addressed, but that “we want to preserve the JCPOA to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon.”

“Iran must change its approach in the region, we are not naive about Iran,” he said, according to AP. “We know that Iran plays a dangerous role.”



Ukraine Pounds Kursk with Drones, Killing One and Injuring Nine, Russia Says 

A Russian flag flies in front of a culture center damaged by a missile attack, what local authorities called a Ukrainian military strike, in the course of Russia-Ukraine conflict in the town of Rylsk in the Kursk region, Russia, March 19, 2025. (Reuters)
A Russian flag flies in front of a culture center damaged by a missile attack, what local authorities called a Ukrainian military strike, in the course of Russia-Ukraine conflict in the town of Rylsk in the Kursk region, Russia, March 19, 2025. (Reuters)
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Ukraine Pounds Kursk with Drones, Killing One and Injuring Nine, Russia Says 

A Russian flag flies in front of a culture center damaged by a missile attack, what local authorities called a Ukrainian military strike, in the course of Russia-Ukraine conflict in the town of Rylsk in the Kursk region, Russia, March 19, 2025. (Reuters)
A Russian flag flies in front of a culture center damaged by a missile attack, what local authorities called a Ukrainian military strike, in the course of Russia-Ukraine conflict in the town of Rylsk in the Kursk region, Russia, March 19, 2025. (Reuters)

Kyiv forces hit Russia's Kursk region that borders Ukraine with dozens of drones, killing an elderly woman, injuring nine people and sparking fires in several buildings in the region's administrative center, Russian authorities said on Tuesday.

The Russian defense ministry, which releases data only on how many drones its forces destroy not how many Ukraine launches, said 109 drones were downed over the Kursk region overnight.

"Kursk has been subjected to a massive enemy attack overnight," the Kursk region administration said in a post on Telegram messaging app.

"Unfortunately, an 85-year-old woman died."

A multi-storey apartment building was damaged as a result of the drone attack, with several flats catching fire, acting mayor of Kursk, Sergei Kotlyarov said on Telegram. Residents have been evacuated to a nearby school, he added.

The region's administration posted photos of a multi-storey apartment building with blown out windows and fire damage to the facade. Drones also hit an ambulance garage, damaging 11 cars, it said.

On Monday evening, three people were killed in the region as a result of a Ukrainian drone attack, officials said.

Reuters could not independently verify the reports. There was no immediate comment from Ukraine.

Both sides deny targeting civilians in the war, which Russia launched with a full-scale invasion on Ukraine more than three years ago. But thousands of civilians have died in the conflict, the vast majority of them Ukrainian.

Kursk and other Russian regions on the border with Ukraine have been subject to frequent air and land attack by Kyiv forces who say their goal is to undermine Moscow's overall war efforts.

Ukrainian troops last year staged a cross-border incursion into the Kursk region of which the city of Kursk is the administrative center. Ukrainian forces still remain in parts of the region, although Russian forces have recaptured much lost territory.

The attack follows a Russian missile and bomb attack on the Ukrainian city of Sumy over the weekend that killed 35 people and injured at least 119.