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."



Beijing Rejects Ukraine’s Claim Significant Numbers of Chinese Troops Are Fighting Alongside Russia 

Ukrainian rescuers work at the site of a drone attack in Kharkiv, Ukraine, late 08 April 2025 (issued 09 April 2025), amid the ongoing Russian invasion. (EPA)
Ukrainian rescuers work at the site of a drone attack in Kharkiv, Ukraine, late 08 April 2025 (issued 09 April 2025), amid the ongoing Russian invasion. (EPA)
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Beijing Rejects Ukraine’s Claim Significant Numbers of Chinese Troops Are Fighting Alongside Russia 

Ukrainian rescuers work at the site of a drone attack in Kharkiv, Ukraine, late 08 April 2025 (issued 09 April 2025), amid the ongoing Russian invasion. (EPA)
Ukrainian rescuers work at the site of a drone attack in Kharkiv, Ukraine, late 08 April 2025 (issued 09 April 2025), amid the ongoing Russian invasion. (EPA)

Ukraine’s claim that significant numbers of Chinese nationals are fighting alongside Russia’s invading army is “totally unfounded,” a Beijing official said Wednesday.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced Tuesday that the Ukrainian military had captured two Chinese men fighting alongside the Russian army in the eastern Donetsk region and had information that “significantly more” are with Russian forces.

It was the first time that Ukraine had made such a claim about Chinese fighters on its soil amid Russia’s almost three-year invasion.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said in Beijing that China has played a “constructive role in politically resolving the Ukraine crisis.”

Lin told a daily news briefing Wednesday that “the Chinese government always asks Chinese citizens to stay away from conflict zones, avoid getting involved in any form of armed conflict, and especially refrain from participating in any party’s military operations.”

His comments appeared to indicate that the captured Chinese had joined Russia’s ranks on their own initiative.

China has provided strong diplomatic support for Russia since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of its neighbor in February 2022. Beijing has also offered an economic lifeline through the trade in energy and consumer goods, but has not knowingly provided Russia with troops, weapons or military expertise.

It put forward a vague peace plan that was swiftly dismissed by most observers.

Previously, Ukraine and the United States have said that thousands of North Korean troops have helped Russia under an agreement between the Kremlin and the government in Pyongyang.

Both Russia and Ukraine allow foreign soldiers to enlist.

US State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said at a briefing in Washington on Tuesday that the US was “aware” of the reports that Chinese citizens fighting on behalf of Russia were caught in Ukraine and called them “disturbing.”

“China is a major enabler of Russia in the war in Ukraine,” Bruce said. China provides nearly 80% of the dual-use items Russia needs to sustain the war, she claimed.

Tensions between Washington and Beijing have escalated in recent years amid disputes over trade, technology and geopolitical competition.

The Kremlin has effectively rejected a US proposal for an immediate and full 30-day halt in the fighting in Ukraine. The Kyiv government has consented to it. Both sides are believed to be readying spring-summer military campaigns.

In the meantime, both countries have kept fighting a war of attrition along the roughly 1,000-kilometer (620-mile) front line and targeted each other with long-range strikes.

The city of Kramatorsk in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk endured a “massive drone attack” overnight, regional head Vadym Filashkin said, injuring an 11-year-old girl, her mother and her grandmother.

Ukraine’s air force said Russia launched 55 Shahed and decoy drones at the country overnight.

The Russian Defense Ministry said that air defenses downed 158 Ukrainian drones over 11 Russian regions overnight but reported no casualties or damage.

Several Russian regions temporarily suspended flights at their airports because of the attack, however, and some Ukrainian drones reached Russia’s Orenburg region in the southern Urals located nearly 1,200 kilometers (745 miles) east of the Ukrainian border, the Defense Ministry said.