Germany summons the Iranian ambassador after targeting Jewish figures

The German Foreign Ministry summoned the Iranian ambassador to Berlin, following the conviction of two people on charges of carrying out intelligence activities and launching attacks against prominent Jewish figures in Germany, at the direction of Tehran.

The ministry wrote today, Monday (October 19, 2026), in a post on the X platform: “We condemn Iran’s activities in the strongest terms,” adding: “We will not tolerate any attacks targeting Jewish life or its defenders, anywhere, and certainly not in Germany.”

A spokeswoman for the Foreign Ministry in Berlin confirmed that the German government has zero tolerance for any threat to Jewish life in Germany, and that these “malicious” attempts will entail legal consequences. She also indicated that the Iranian ambassador had been informed of this position “very clearly.”

In its post on the

Last Thursday, the Higher Regional Court in the state of Hamburg in northern Germany sentenced a 54-year-old man to prison for eight and a half years, a Danish citizen named Ali S., and another Afghan man named Tawab M., aged 43, who was sentenced to four and a half years in prison.

According to investigations, the two men residing in Denmark spied on Joseph Schuster, head of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, and Volker Beck, a former German politician from the Green Party and head of the German-Israeli Association, and planned attacks targeting them. The two men were convicted in Germany after they were arrested in Denmark last year and extradited.

The court concluded that these activities were intended to prepare for “state-sponsored terrorist” attacks, specifically the assassination attempt on Volker Beck; It was reported that the 54-year-old man received his assignments directly from officers in what is known as the “Quds Force,” which is the external unit of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard.

The court added that this man planned to carry out an arson attack on a store selling halal food according to Jewish law in the German capital, Berlin.

Judge Petra Finde-Shpworth said the crimes constituted “terrorist activities arranged by Iran,” adding that the Danish national was preparing a killing for “purely political objectives.”

It appears that the German security authorities received information from abroad about the plans that the two individuals were preparing, and Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt had stated after the arrest that took place last year that Germany had cooperated in this regard with several foreign intelligence services, according to the German newspaper “Die Zeit.”

Volker Beck said after the ruling was issued that “the trial clearly showed how Iran exports its terrorism to Germany,” reiterating his call for the expulsion of the Iranian ambassador, and adding that the ruling is a wake-up call for German security policy. The Islamic Republic of Iran is a regime that practices state terrorism, threatening and persecuting political opponents and Jewish or Israeli targets in Germany.”

In July 2025, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs summoned the Iranian ambassador to Germany after the arrest of Ali S. In Denmark, when charges were brought against the two men last month, the Iranian embassy in Berlin rejected in a statement what it described as “unfounded allegations made at the request of Iran’s enemies.”