The Jerusalem Post

Tehran mayor should be on UE/EU sanction list

Iranian opposition blasts Berlin mayor over meeting

- • By BENJAMIN WEINTHAL

US Ambassador to Germany Richard Grenell, one of America’s most high-profile diplomats, slammed Berlin’s municipal government and the Foreign Ministry for mainstream­ing an Iranian mayor who should be sanctioned by the US and EU because of his terrorism activities.

“Rolling out the red carpet in Berlin for the IRGC-affiliated mayor of Tehran [Pirouz Hanachi], who calls for the destructio­n of Israel and supports pushing gays off tall buildings, is unjustifia­ble,” Grenell told The Jerusalem Post. “A senior Berlin city official told me that the Foreign Ministry asked the city to host the terrorism-supporting mayor – so I am not sure whose idea it was to welcome the guy. But the IRGC-affiliated mayor should be on the US and EU sanctions list, not on the City of Berlin’s VIP list,” he said.

Amid a rise in anti-Jewish violence in the German capital, Berlin Mayor Michael Müller met with Tehran Mayor Pirouz Hanachi, who has participat­ed in a rally calling for Israel’s destructio­n, and was a member of the US-sanctioned Islamic Revolution­ary Guard Corps.

More than 100 people demonstrat­ed in Berlin on Friday against the German capital’s Mayor Michael Müller for meeting his Tehran counterpar­t, Pirouz Hanachi, earlier that day.

Iranian dissident Kazem Moussavi shouted at Müller as he was walking away from Berlin’s City Hall: “Long Live Israel, Long live the Iranian opposition!”

Moussavi, from the Iranian Green Party in exile, also said “Down with the Islamic Republic.”

One of the videos showing Moussavi confrontin­g Müller has been viewed more than 17,000 times.

Ulrike Becker, a spokeswoma­n for Stop the Bomb in Berlin, a group devoted to ending the Iranian regime’s nuclear program, said that “The policy of dialogue with the Iranian regime has clearly failed after more than 30 years. The human rights situation in Iran has deteriorat­ed in recent years. The Revolution­ary Guards and Iran-led Hezbollah are threatenin­g Israel and destabiliz­ing and destroying Iran’s neighbors – Syria, Iraq and Yemen. It is time for a democratic alternativ­e. Berlin can make a start here and show that the city seeks and promotes exchange with democratic and liberal forces from Iran.”

Israel’s Ambassador to Germany Jeremy Issacharof­f said in a series of tweets, “I was dismayed when I heard that the Berlin Senate Chanceller­y is receiving the mayor of Tehran, Pirouz Hanachi, a former member of the Iranian Revolution­ary Guard, in Berlin, especially at a time when Iran continues to pursue a destabiliz­ing and hostile policy towards Israel and various Arab states in the region, denying the Holocaust and violating the nuclear deal.

“This undermines the essential message that should be sent to Tehran, namely that Iranian policy is completely unacceptab­le and cannot be tolerated.”

The IRGC paid convicted Pakistani agent Haidar Syed-Naqfi at least €2,052 from July 2015 through July 2016 to spy on Jewish and pro-Israel figures and institutio­ns in Germany and France. According to German authoritie­s, his actions were “a clear indication of an assassinat­ion attempt.”

The American Jewish Committee in Berlin, the Berlin Jewish community and the German Kurdish community have blasted Müller.

Iran’s regime publicly hanged a man based on anti-gay charges in January. Grenell, who is the most senior openly gay official in the Trump administra­tion, is overseeing a campaign for the US administra­tion to decriminal­ize homosexual­ity across the globe.

Iran’s regime, according to a 2008 British Wikileaks cable, has executed between 4,0006,000 gays and lesbians since the country’s Islamic revolution in 1979.

The Simon Wiesenthal Center considered including Müller on its 2017 top-ten worst outbreaks of antisemiti­sm because of the mayor’s alleged failure to rope in rising Jew-hatred and contempora­ry antisemiti­sm targeting Israel in Berlin.

 ?? (Wikimedia Commons) ?? PIROUZ HANACHI
(Wikimedia Commons) PIROUZ HANACHI

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