German government condemns Iran’s call to 'destroy Israel'

The government has largely refused to criticize the regime over the years for its lethal antisemitism and Holocaust denial.

By BENJAMIN WEINTHAL
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei gestures as he delivers a Friday prayer sermon in Tehran on January 17 (photo credit: REUTERS)
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei gestures as he delivers a Friday prayer sermon in Tehran on January 17
(photo credit: REUTERS)
BERLIN - After Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo blasted the Islamic Republic of Iran on Wednesday for its genocidal antisemitism targeting Israel, Germany’s Foreign Ministry condemned Supreme Leader of Iran Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in a statement to The Jerusalem Post.
“The federal government sharply condemns all glorification and legitimizing of terror, [as well as] calls for the annihilation of Israel, inciting terrorist acts or spreading antisemitic content. Such hostile comments to Israel are in no way acceptable. Israel's right to exist is not negotiable. The federal republic regularly addresses critical points in all areas in an open way with Iran,” the ministry said.
The Post sent a press query to the German government regarding Khamenei's actions, after he published an antisemitic poster on Tuesday evoking Nazi Germany’s “final solution” that destroyed European Jewry, in order to advance Tehran's quest to abolish Israel.
The poster’s language reads: "Palestine will be free. The final solution. Resistance is referendum."
A poster Khamenei's office published on his website for Quds day
A poster Khamenei's office published on his website for Quds day
Khamenei displayed the antisemitic poster in English, Farsi and Arabic on his official homepage.
Iran's foreign minster Mohammad Zarif appeared to react to the Post report tweeting: Disgusting that those whose civilization found a "Final Solution" in gas chambers attack those who seek a real solution at the ballot box, through a REFERENDUM. Why are US and West so afraid of democracy? Palestinians should not have to pay for your crimes, or for your guilt.

The picture shows a conquered Jerusalem with photos of the late Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corp Quds Force leader Qassem Soleimani. The EU and the US classified Soleimani as an international terrorist.
The German government has largely refused to criticize Iran’s regime over the years for its lethal antisemitism and Holocaust denial.

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The foreign policy spokesman of the Free Democratic Party in the Bundestag, Bijan Djir-Sarai, tweeted a question to German foreign minister Heiko Maas in response to Khamenei's anti-Israel tweet: "Europe and Germany urgently need a new Iran strategy. How long do you want to tolerate the aggressive policies of the mullah regime?"

In 2019, German Foreign Ministry state secretary Niels Annen, from the Social Democratic Party, celebrated Iran’s Islamic revolution at Tehran’s embassy in Berlin. Germany’s president ,the social democrat Frank Walter-Steinmeier, congratulated Iran’s radical anti-Western regime that same year in the name of the German people.
The US government under the Obama and Trump administrations designated Iran’s regime the worst state-sponsor of terrorism.
Elan Carr, the US Special Envoy for Monitoring and Combating anti-Semitism, tweeted last week that “Iran’s regime is the world’s chief state sponsor of antisemitism. It must stop incitement and protect its Jewish community and other minorities."
Germany’s social democratic foreign minister Heiko Maas along with his British and French counterparts set up a financial mechanism termed INSTEX to circumvent US sanctions against Iran. The Instrument in Support of Trade Exchanges allows for EU trade with Tehran’s regime.
Germany remains the most important European trading partner for Iran.


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