Germany ordered the closure of all three Iranian consulates in the country on Thursday following Tehran's execution of Iranian-German dual citizen Jamshid Sharmahd, who had spent four years in an Iranian prison on terror charges.Sharmahd, 69, a German citizen of Iranian descent and a US resident, was executed in Iran on Monday after being convicted of carrying out terrorist attacks, the Iranian judiciary said.He was one of several Iranian dissidents abroad either tricked or kidnapped back to Iran in recent years as Tehran began retaliating after the collapse of its 2015 nuclear deal with global powers including Germany.
Sharmahd's execution is the latest flashpoint in an already strained relationship between Germany and Iran, with their respective foreign ministers trading criticism over the killing. "Our diplomatic relations are already more than at a low point," German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said on Thursday. "We repeatedly made unmistakably clear to Tehran that the execution of a German citizen would have serious consequences," she said, adding that Berlin will continue working to secure the release of an unspecified number of other Germans held in Iran.Germany's decision to shut the Iranian consulates in Frankfurt, Hamburg and Munich is a diplomatic weapon it seldom wields, and leaves the Islamic Republic with only its embassy in Berlin.
The German embassy in Tehran will remain open. Germany expelled two Iranian diplomats last year over Sharmahd’s death sentence.The German foreign ministry summoned Iran’s charge d’affaires on Tuesday to protest against Sharmahd’s execution.
German Ambassador Markus Potzel also protested to Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, before being recalled to Berlin for