Iran Condemns Germany, France Ahead of EU Sanctions

Demonstrators during a 'Freedom' protest on Ukraine and Iran in Cologne last week (dpa)
Demonstrators during a 'Freedom' protest on Ukraine and Iran in Cologne last week (dpa)
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Iran Condemns Germany, France Ahead of EU Sanctions

Demonstrators during a 'Freedom' protest on Ukraine and Iran in Cologne last week (dpa)
Demonstrators during a 'Freedom' protest on Ukraine and Iran in Cologne last week (dpa)

European Union foreign ministers are due to impose more sanctions on Iran on Monday, while Tehran condemned France and Germany for their positions on the Iranian protests.

The Iranian Foreign Ministry described German Chancellor Olaf Scholz's pledge to intensify pressure on Tehran as "provocative, interfering, and undiplomatic."

Scholz had spoken about the protests sweeping Iran and announced his support for imposing new EU sanctions on Iran.

At one point, he addressed the Iranian government directly, asking: "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."

Meanwhile, German police announced that a man attacked Iranians in Berlin at a protest in support of women's freedom and democracy in their homeland.

On Saturday night, the police said a 26-year-old man destroyed banners and threatened some Iranian activists with a knife. No one was injured, and the man was arrested, police added.

The German State Protection Office, which handles terrorist attacks, was involved due to suspicions that the attack was politically motivated.

Commenting on the German positions, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani said that some human rights claimants had forgotten their dark record against the "dignified and resistant people of Iran" while offering blind and inhumane support for the regime of former Iraqi President Saddam and maintaining the unjust US sanctions after its withdrawal from the nuclear agreement.

Kanaani noted that "they are also keeping silent vis-a-vis the ISIS terror acts, the latest of which is the terrorist group's attack on Shah Cheragh Shrine."

He noted that Germany presented itself as a human rights defender by evading its international responsibility to respect the right of state sovereignty while harboring anti-Iran terrorist and separatist groups and adopting a selective and "double standard approach towards the crimes committed by the child-killing Zionist entity."

The spokesman reiterated that Iran had a long list of human rights demands from the German authorities, so Berlin had to be responsibly transparent regarding its past.

Kanaani called on German officials to restore rationality to the mutual ties and prevent more turmoil, adding that "respect for common interests was the only way for lasting cooperation."

Tehran also criticized French President Emmanuel Macron, who received four Iranian activists, including the daughter of one of the victims of the recent protests, describing his statement as "regrettable and shameful."

During the meeting on the sidelines of a Paris Peace Forum, Macron emphasized France's respect and admiration in the context of the revolution they are leading.

Macron received a delegation of four Iranian women: Masih Alinejad, a New York-based Iranian activist who encourages Iranian women to protest against the obligatory headscarf, Shima Babaei, who campaigned for justice for her disappeared father, Ladan Boroumand, the co-founder of Washington-based rights group Abdurrahman Boroumand Center, and Roya Piraei whose mother Minoo Majidi was killed by security forces at the start of the protest crackdown.

After the meeting, Macron told a conference in Paris of his "respect and admiration in the context of the revolution they are leading."

Referring to Alinejad, Kanaani said it was "surprising that the president of a country that stands for freedom would degrade himself by meeting" her, alleging that she had "tried to spread hate and carry out violent and terrorist acts in Iran and against Iran's foreign diplomatic missions."

Alinejad wrote on Twitter: "In my bilateral meeting with the French President, I said what's happening in Iran is a revolution. France can be the first country to recognize it. Instead of Islamic Republic (officials), meet opposition figures in future and prepare EU to accept a secular Iran."



Germany's Merz Heads for Delicate Talks with Trump

Friedrich Merz, left, wants to maintain good ties with what he has called Germany's 'indispensable' ally, despite Donald Trump's disruptive 'America First' policies. Ludovic MARIN, SAUL LOEB / POOL/AFP/File
Friedrich Merz, left, wants to maintain good ties with what he has called Germany's 'indispensable' ally, despite Donald Trump's disruptive 'America First' policies. Ludovic MARIN, SAUL LOEB / POOL/AFP/File
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Germany's Merz Heads for Delicate Talks with Trump

Friedrich Merz, left, wants to maintain good ties with what he has called Germany's 'indispensable' ally, despite Donald Trump's disruptive 'America First' policies. Ludovic MARIN, SAUL LOEB / POOL/AFP/File
Friedrich Merz, left, wants to maintain good ties with what he has called Germany's 'indispensable' ally, despite Donald Trump's disruptive 'America First' policies. Ludovic MARIN, SAUL LOEB / POOL/AFP/File

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz is set to meet with US President Donald Trump on Thursday, hoping to build a personal relationship despite discord over Ukraine and the threat of a trade war.

A month into his job, the conservative Merz, 69, is a staunch transatlanticist at pains to maintain good ties with what he considers post-war Germany's "indispensable" ally, despite Trump's unyielding "America First" stance, said AFP.

Merz will hope that his pledges to sharply increase Germany's NATO defense spending will please Trump, and that he can find common ground on confronting Russia after the mercurial US president voiced growing frustration with President Vladimir Putin.

On Trump's threat to hammer the European Union with sharply higher tariffs, Merz, leader of the bloc's biggest economy, has argued that it must be self-confident in its negotiations with Washington, saying that "we're not supplicants".

Despite the tensions, Merz said he was "looking forward" to his first face-to-face meeting with Trump.

"Our alliance with America was, is, and remains of paramount importance for the security, freedom, and prosperity of Europe," he posted on X late Wednesday.

His office has also voiced confidence that Merz will be spared the kind of public dressing down Trump delivered in the Oval Office to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and South Africa's Cyril Ramaphosa.

Merz is looking ahead to his first in-person meeting with Trump "with great calmness and joy", his spokesman Stefan Kornelius said, pointing to their "very good relationship" so far.

"Germany is the third-largest economy in the world, and we have a lot to offer as an economic partner of the USA," Kornelius said.

"At the same time, a very constructive and positive relationship with America is very important to us, for our own economy and for the security of Germany and Europe."

The two leaders -- both with business backgrounds and keen golf players -- are on first-name terms after several phone calls, Kornelius said, and Merz now has Trump's cellphone number on speed dial.

Defense and trade

Merz has been given the honor of staying at Blair House, the presidential guest residence on Pennsylvania Avenue across from the White House.

Merz has even felt comfortable enough to have a little fun at Trump's expense, recently telling a TV interviewer that his every second or third word was "great".

Whatever the personal chemistry, the policy issues are potentially explosive.

Trump launched his roller-coaster series of trade policy shifts in April, with the threat of 50-percent US tariffs on European goods looming.

Merz, who has sat on many corporate boards, is "very experienced in business, too -- the world from which Donald Trump comes," his chancellery chief of staff, Thorsten Frei, told the Funke media group.

On the Ukraine war, where Germany strongly backs Kyiv, Merz will hope to convince Trump to heighten pressure on Putin through new sanctions to persuade him to agree to a ceasefire.

Trump, 78, has recently expressed frustration with Putin, calling him "crazy", but without announcing concrete new measures.

Merz's visit comes ahead of a G7 summit in Canada on June 15-17 and a NATO meeting in The Hague at the end of the month.

Merz has said Germany is willing to follow a plan to raise defense spending to 3.5 percent of GDP over coming years, with another 1.5 percent dedicated to security-related infrastructure.

'Calm and reasonable'

Another potential flashpoint issue looms -- the vocal support Trump and some in his administration have given to the far-right and anti-immigration Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, which came second in February elections.

US Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and former Trump adviser Elon Musk have all weighed in in support of the AfD, which in Germany is shunned by all other political parties.

When Germany's domestic intelligence service recently designated the AfD a "right-wing extremist" group, Rubio denounced the step as "tyranny in disguise".

Merz slammed what he labelled "absurd observations" from Washington and said he "would like to encourage the American government... to largely stay out of" German domestic politics.

German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul has also openly criticized Trump, saying this week that he frequently made statements "that seem directed against the fundamental foundations of our coexistence".