The US and German foreign ministers on Thursday strongly expressed their support for the protests in Iran, stressing that the issue would play a bigger role at the two-day G7 meeting in the western German city of Münster on Friday.
“This is really a moment saying we bring up a human rights issue, we bring up an issue of democracy and freedom at this G7 meeting to coordinate the different bilateral actions we are doing, because we are running out of time,” said Annalena Baerbok during talks with Anthony Blinken.
The two ministers attended the US-German Futures Forum entitled “The Future of Democracy in a Digital World,” ahead of the G7 foreign ministers meeting.
The German FM then criticized the Iranian government for the violent security crackdown on the protest movement.
She said that for weeks one has been experiencing “the brutal violence with which the Iranian regime is treating its own citizens. How it beats its youth, its society, while its people are dying.”
Baerbok then commented on Germany’s statement on Thursday urging its citizens to leave Iran or risk arbitrary arrest and long prison terms there, warning that dual nationals were particularly at risk.
“The German move comes in response to the tight security situation,” she stressed, according to Germany’s news agency.
Baerbok also said: “It’s not only women but the diversity of the Iran society that is saying: enough, and we want to live in freedom like every-many other countries.”
For his part, Blinken said that with regard to technology, “one of the things that we’re trying to do together is to make sure that Iranians have the ability to communicate with each other and with the outside world.”
He added: “Technology is at the heart of that, making sure that there are no barriers to the extent we have anything to say about it to that technology getting to people who need it and want to use it.”
Germany hosts and leads the meeting of G7 foreign ministers in Münster on Thursday and Friday.
The G7 includes Germany, France, Italy, Japan, Canada, the US, and Britain.
Shortly before the start of the G7 meeting, dozens of people gathered in the German city to show support for the Iranians, according to AFP.
