Germany to close three Iranian consulates over execution of its citizen

Germany will close the three Iranian consulates on its soil in response to the execution of German-Iranian Jamshid Sharmahd, Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said on Thursday.

"We have repeatedly and unequivocally made it clear to Tehran that the execution of a German citizen will have serious consequences," Baerbock said, announcing the closure of the consulates in Frankfurt, Munich and Hamburg in a televised announcement.

The execution, announced on Monday, had already provoked tit-for-tat diplomatic protests, with Chancellor Olaf Scholz calling it a "scandal".

"The fact that this assassination took place in the light of the latest developments in the Middle East shows that (Iran's) dictatorial, unjust regime... does not act according to normal diplomatic logic," Baerbock said.

"It is not without reason that our diplomatic relations are already at an all-time low," she said.

The closures will affect a total of 32 consular staff, according to the foreign ministry.

Baerbock did not mention Iran's embassy in Berlin but said Germany would "continue to maintain our diplomatic channels and our embassy in Tehran".

Among other reasons, this was necessary in order for the government to continue to press for the release of the other German citizens whom "the regime is unjustly detaining", she said.

Sharmahd, 69, was sentenced to death in February 2023 for the capital offence of "corruption on Earth", a sentence later confirmed by the Iranian Supreme Court.

He was convicted of playing a role in a 2008 mosque bombing in the southern city of Shiraz, in which 14 people were killed and 300 wounded.