Germany's Merz receives death threat from Iranian newspaper
Tehran's ultraconservative Hamshahri newspaper published images of 13 international politicians "wanted" for the death of former Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, along with a statement claiming
Tehran's ultraconservative Hamshahri newspaper published images of 13 international politicians "wanted" for the death of former Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, along with a statement claiming that the politicians would pay the ultimate price. Among the politicians was German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, of the Christian Democrats (CDU). In addition to Merz, it also featured US President Donald Trump, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, French President Emmanuel Macron and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, among other politicians. In the images, all of them are wearing orange prison uniforms, as are common in the United States. Many European countries have supported the US and Israeli attacks on Iran since February, including by giving them permission to fly through their airspace. Why was Friedrich Merz named on the retaliation list? After US and Israeli attacks on Iran began in early March, Merz said that the German government shared the relief felt by many Iranians that this regime was now coming to an end. He went on to say: "We share the interest of the United States and Israel in seeing an end to this regime's terror and its dangerous nuclear and ballistic armament." Thus far, however, the regime remains in power. US launches new wave of strikes on Iran To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed at the very start of the campaign against Iran.
His son, Mojtaba Khamenei, is now his successor. In a written statement, Mojtaba Khamenei announced "retaliation" for his father's death. Last week's online article in the widely read Iranian newspaper stated: "Retaliation is inevitable. The criminals will take their wish for a peaceful death to the grave." It was not included in the Sunday print edition of Hamshahri, and it was deleted from the website by the beginning of this week. German officials warn of possible Iranian attacks in Europe Even so, German government officials as well as the opposition environmentalist Green Party, expressed concern. Marc Henrichmann, the chairman of the Bundestag oversight committee responsible for monitoring Germany's intelligence agencies, said: "We have to assume that Iran's intelligence services are planning attacks in Europe as well." German security agencies are particularly concerned about what are known as "disposable agents," or individuals who are only recruited to carry out a single attack. Sebastian Fiedler, spokesperson for domestic policy for the parliamentary group of the center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD), expressed similar concerns. He told the newspaper Die Welt that he saw a high threat level, and that current events reinforced this assessment. He explained that the current situation is likely to "stir up extremist groups and mobilize lone actors." However, many politicians also added that the chancellor is already under extremely tight security and that increased security measures for Friedrich Merz are not necessary at this time.
The BriefWire