Germany said on Wednesday it had summoned Iran’s ambassador over an attempted arson attack on a synagogue in 2022 that Berlin said was planned with Tehran’s help.
A German-Iranian national was sentenced in December to two years and nine months in prison for conspiring to attack a synagogue in Bochum, western Germany.
The 36-year-old man, known only as Babak J. , had planned to attack the synagogue but ended up throwing an incendiary device at an adjacent school building. No one was injured.
The Düsseldorf court said in its verdict that the attack had been planned in collaboration with “Iranian state agencies. “
The Foreign Ministry said Wednesday in a post on X, formerly Twitter, that it had summoned the Iranian envoy after receiving a written justification for the decision, AFP reported.
“We will now immediately share the judgment with our European partners and EU institutions and take further action,” the ministry said.
Germany had already summoned the Iranian chargé d’affaires in December to discuss the plot.
Germany has become increasingly alarmed in recent years by rising anti-Jewish sentiment eight decades after the end of the Holocaust.
Anti-Semitic acts have risen sharply in the country amid the latest unrest in the Middle East, according to the Federal Association of Anti-Semitism Research and Information Centers (RIAS).
Gunmen in camouflage uniforms opened fire with automatic weapons on spectators near Moscow on Friday, killing at least 60 others and wounding 145 others in an attack claimed by Islamic State militants.
In the deadliest attack in Russia since the siege of Beslan in 2004, gunmen fired on civilians just before the Soviet-era rock band “Picnic” made its way to a packed 6,200-seat venue at Crocus City Hall, just west of the capital.
Verified video showed other people taking seats in the lobby and then running toward the exits as repeated gunfire echoed above the screams. Another video showed men firing into groups of other people. Some of the victims lay motionless in pools of blood.
“All of a sudden, there were detonations, gunshots. A burst of gunfire, I don’t know what,” a witness who asked not to be identified told Reuters.
“A stampede has begun. Everyone ran to the escalator,” the witness said. “Everyone was screaming, everyone was running. “
Russian investigators said the death toll exceeds 60. Health officials said another 145 people were injured, and about 60 are in critical condition.
During the siege of Beslan in 2004, militants took more than 1,000 people hostage, as well as many children.
Russian President Vladimir Putin briefed on the scenario through security chiefs, adding Alexander Bortnikov, head of the Federal Security Service (FSB), the Kremlin said.
Russian investigators released photographs of a Kalashnikov automatic weapon, vests with several spare magazines and bags with used bullet casings.
Islamic State
ISIS, the extremist organization that once sought to control large swaths of Iraq and Syria, claimed responsibility for the attack, the organization’s Amaq news firm said on Telegram.
A grainy symbol published through some Russian media of two of the alleged attackers in a white car.
The fate of the attackers was unclear as firefighters battled a large blaze and evacuated many people as parts of the hall’s ceiling collapsed.
IS said its fighters attacked the outskirts of Moscow, “killing and wounding many other people and causing wonderful destruction there before retreating safely to their bases. “They did not elaborate.
The United States has intelligence confirming that it claims responsibility for the shooting, a U. S. official said Friday. The official said Washington had warned Moscow in recent weeks about the possibility of an attack.
“We have warned the Russians appropriately,” the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity, offering additional details.
Russia has yet to clarify who it believes is responsible.
The attack on Crocus City Hall, about 20 kilometers from the Kremlin, comes just two weeks after the U. S. embassy in Russia warned that “extremists” were planning an imminent attack on Moscow.
Hours before the embassy’s warning, the FSB said it had thwarted an attack on a Moscow synagogue through ISIS’s partner in Afghanistan, known as ISIS-Khorasan or ISIS-K, and that it sought to identify a caliphate in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. and Iran.
Putin changed the course of the Syrian war by intervening in 2015, supporting President Bashar al-Assad in the face of the opposition and ISIS.
“ISIS-K has been obsessed with Russia for more than two years, criticizing Putin in its propaganda,” said Colin Clarke of the Soufan Center.
ISIS has generally claimed responsibility for deadly attacks in the Middle East, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran, Europe, the Philippines and Sri Lanka.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said it was a “bloody terrorist attack” that the world strongly condemns.
The United States, European and Arab powers, and many former Soviet republics expressed surprise and condolences. Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak denied any Ukrainian involvement.
The United Nations Security Council condemned what it called a “heinous and cowardly terrorist attack. “
Enhanced Security
Russia has beefed up security at airports, shipping hubs and in the capital, a vast urban domain of more than 21 million people. All large-scale public events have been canceled across the country.
Putin, who was re-elected on Sunday for another six-year term, sent thousands of troops into Ukraine in 2022 and has continually warned that powers (coupled with Western countries) are trying to wreak havoc on Russia.
Putin was briefed within minutes of the attack and is up to date, the Kremlin said.
“The president is constantly getting data on what’s going on and the actions taken by everyone involved. The head of state has given all the mandatory instructions,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
At Crocus City Hall, flames shot into the sky and plumes of black smoke rose over the site as a pile of blue lights from emergency vehicles shone into the night.
Helicopters tried to extinguish the flames ravaging the building. The roof of the hallway collapsed, the official RIA news agency reported.
“Today a terrible tragedy occurred at the Crocus City shopping mall,” Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said. “I feel sorry for the loved ones of the victims. “
Russia on Friday carried out its biggest airstrike on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure during the war, hitting a large dam, killing at least five other people and leaving more than a million without power, Kyiv said.
Ukraine, which has long suggested allies to supply more air defense, said its force formula had won backup forces from neighboring Poland, Romania and Slovakia as seven of its regions faced force cuts.
The onslaught through Russia, which last week vowed to punish Kyiv for wearing down attacks and movements during its presidential election, was reminiscent of the first winter of the invasion, when Moscow bombed the network of forces.
“Russia is at war with people’s lives. My deepest condolences to the families and loved ones of those who died in this terror,” President Volodymyr Zelensky wrote in the Telegram message.
Russia denies intentionally targeting civilians, even though the war that began with its full-scale invasion in February 2022 has led to the deaths of thousands of people, the uprooting of millions, and the destruction of Ukrainian cities.
Moscow says the attacks on Ukraine’s infrastructure are valid measures aimed at weakening the enemy military.
Ukraine’s largest dam, the DniproHES, in the southern city of Zaporizhzhia, suffered shaking in its hydraulic structures and the dam itself, the state-owned hydropower company Ukrhidroenergo said, adding that there was no threat of rupture.
The company’s director, Ihor Syrota, said the blocks and dam had been damaged. One of the blocks suffered two direct hits, he said.
“There’s been a fire at the plant lately. Emergency crews and electrical personnel are working at the site to deal with the aftermath of the airstrikes,” the company said.
“The World Seees”
At least five other people were killed, two in the western Khmelnytskyi region and three in Zaporizhzhia, in addition to at least one near the dam, according to the local directorate and the Prosecutor General’s Office.
Russia fired 88 Shahed missiles and 63 drones, of which 37 and 55 were shot down respectively, the Ukrainian Air Force said of the attacks concentrated in the Kharkiv, Dnipropetrovsk and Zaporizhzhia regions.
This represents a worse proportion than usual, which may simply reflect Moscow’s widespread use of ballistic missiles that are harder to shoot down, as well as the proximity of target regions to Russian-controlled areas.
Around 1. 2 million people in at least four regions were left without power due to the attacks, according to figures posted by presidential aide Oleksiy Kuleba on Telegram. About 700,000 of them were in the eastern Kharkiv region alone.
“The goal is only to damage, but to bring back to control, like last year, to cause a large-scale failure in the country’s electricity system,” Energy Minister German Galushchenko wrote on Facebook.
“Russia has launched the largest combined attack on Ukraine’s system of forces since the beginning of the full-scale invasion,” grid operator UkrEnergo quoted its chief, Volodymyr Kudrytskyi, as saying. It reported power outages in seven regions.
Zelenskiy said work is underway to fix the source of force in nine regions.
“The world sees very clearly the targets of Russian terrorists: power plants and power supply lines, a hydroelectric dam, ordinary apartment buildings and even a trolleybus,” he said.
Ukraine’s largest energy company, DTEK, said some of its thermal power plants had been affected.
The U. S. House of Representatives passed a $1. 2 trillion government investment bill on Friday with more from Democrats than the Republican majority, raising a new risk from a hard-line conservative lawmaker of ousting President Mike Johnson.
The House vote, by a vote of 286 to 134, sends the measure to the Democratic-led Senate, which has hours to act before the deadline (0400 GMT Saturday), when parts of the Department of Homeland Security, the Internal Revenue Service and the Justice Department must stop at the Treasury and the state. Departments would begin to close.
The move marks a step toward ending a more than six-month war over the length of Washington’s shutdown for the fiscal year that began Oct. 1. Ratings agencies have warned that the repeated brinkmanship could hurt the solvency of a federal government that has lately been more than $34. 6 trillion in debt.
The measure passed the House with 185 Democratic and Republican votes, prompting radical conservative Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene to introduce a measure to unseat Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson.
Johnson himself ascended to office in October after hardliners, furious that his predecessor, Kevin McCarthy, had passed an investment measure over their objections, ousted him as leader.
But Greene said she would push for an immediate vote.
“I filed a cancellation request today. But it’s more of a precaution than just a pink note,” the North Carolina Republican told reporters.
The next Senate
Meanwhile, Democratic Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer suggested his colleagues act temporarily to pass the measure.
“Let’s finish the job today. Let’s even do a weekend closing. Let’s finish the government’s investment plans for the rest of the fiscal year,” Schumer said. “There’s no explanation as to why it’s delayed. “
The last partial federal government shutdown took place during President Donald Trump’s administration, from Dec. 22, 2018, to Jan. 25, 2019. The record-breaking government shutdown came as the Republican pushed for investment in building a wall along the U. S. border. Mexico and was unable to negotiate a deal with the Democrats.
The existing 1,012-page bill provides for an $886 million investment for the Department of Defense, adding up to a buildup of U. S. troops. It also covers agencies such as the Department of Homeland Security, the Internal Revenue Service, and the Department of Justice, as well as the Treasury and State Departments.
Another moot currency factor is spilling over into Congress, where its leaders, with the exception of Johnson, are urgently calling for final approval of a $95 billion Senate-approved security assistance package for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan.
Some Republicans are hesitant to continue supporting Ukraine in its war against the Russian army’s invasion.
While conservatives were going to convince Congress and Democratic President Joe Biden to cut some spending for fiscal year 2024, they expected much bigger cuts. Their discontent led to the historic impeachment trial in October of House Speaker Kevin McCarthy. The resulting political battles between Republicans paralyzed the House for three weeks as Republicans fought for a replacement.
Since then, in the run-up to the November election, most Republicans have been reluctant to trigger a government shutdown over spending, even though Washington has been pushed to the limit four times since late September.
A shutdown starting Saturday would mean the top U. S. Border Patrol and immigration agents would continue to work, but local governments would likely receive no new help to house migrants.
U. S. infantrymen and all federal workers likely won’t be paid until new investments are approved and national parks are closed. The same goes for the two American astronauts aboard the International Space Station, 409 km above Earth.
In the meantime, the Internal Revenue Service would continue to process tax returns due April 15 and notify taxpayers of any delays in refunds.
At the State Department, security at embassies and other foreign offices would remain in place, and passports and visas would be issued as long as there were sufficient fees for such activities. Many other operations would cease.
Russia considers itself at war because of Western intervention on Ukraine’s side and cannot allow a state to exist on its borders that has shown itself willing to use any method to seize Crimea, the Kremlin said on Friday.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov’s comments to the Russian publication “Arguments and Facts” are among the most aggressive to date on Ukraine, a large-scale Russian attack on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure.
“We are in a state of war. Yes, it started as a special military operation, but as soon as this organization was formed, when the collective West participated together with Ukraine, it became a war for us. “Peskov said.
“I’m convinced of that. And everyone perceives it because of their internal motivation. “
Russian officials, from President Vladimir Putin to President Vladimir Putin, have begun using the word “war” from time to time, after long insisting that the term be avoided.
Peskov also said that Russia will have to fully “liberate” its “new regions” to ensure people’s safety, referring to the four Ukrainian regions that Russia claimed to have annexed in 2022.
Kyiv says Russia’s annexation was an illegal land grab and will not be prevented until all Russian infantrymen are driven off its soil. We are also determined to take back the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea, which Russia seized from it in 2014.
Moscow, which has invested heavily in Crimea, says the peninsula is part of Russia and is resolved once and for all.
Russia’s election authority on Thursday announced the final effects of the presidential election, confirming Vladimir Putin’s landslide victory in the presidency for his term.
The authority also described as “historic” the 3 days of voting, in which the contest was reduced, rejecting allegations of electoral fraud.
After the final effects were released, Putin addressed the country in a video broadcast on state television.
“The elections have shown that Russia is now one big united family. We resolutely follow the ancient path we have chosen. We are confident in ourselves, our talents and our future,” the Russian leader said.
Russia and Ukraine or the conflict will end through negotiations, China’s special envoy for Eurasian affairs said on Friday, although the warring states view the prospects for peace talks very differently and remain firm in their positions.
Li Hui warned diplomats and journalists in his latest circular on international relations between Moscow, Kyiv and several European capitals that the war was most likely to escalate further.
“All sides insist on their own positions and there is a relatively huge gap in their understanding of the peace talks. . . But everyone agrees that it is negotiations, and not weapons, that will ultimately end this war,” he said. .
“More than two years after the start of the war, there is only no sign of a truce in the fighting, but there is also the risk of an escalation of the conflict,” he added, saying he believed a ceasefire would be a solution. smart thing. be difficult.
China and Russia signed a “no-holds-barred” partnership before it erupted in early 2022 and Beijing refrained from condemning the Kremlin for the invasion.
Still, some Ukrainian officials have said Beijing will have to engage in negotiations to end the violence.
Russian forces are slowly advancing and now occupy just under a fifth of Ukrainian territory. Last year, Ukraine’s counteroffensive failed to make significant gains after its forces drove Russian troops out of giant swaths of the country in the east and south in 2022.
Li said Russia appreciates China’s efforts in its latest diplomatic back-and-forth circular, which also took him to Germany, France and Poland this month, while Ukraine considered its recent stopover important.
He said China needs a foreign peace convention identified through Russia and Ukraine, in which both participate equally. Switzerland plans to host a peace convention this year, which Moscow says is doomed to fail without its participation.
“What I have to stress is that the Chinese side is in favor of one side over the other, and it just needs to make sure the assembly is a success,” Li said.
“As you can see, the objective of the Chinese is very clear: to facilitate an early political settlement of this crisis,” he added.
Li told reporters that China is “with open arms” to accept anything that promotes de-escalation and negotiation.
“In the future, China will continue to play a role and bring ‘Chinese wisdom,'” he said.
Denmark faces heightened dangers of terror attacks due to the standoff in Israel and Gaza and the recent burning of the Koran in the Nordic country, according to the country’s National Intelligence and Security Service (PET).
The number of incidents remains at level four on a five-point scale, indicating a “serious” threat, but the dangers “have escalated to the existing level,” the company said in its annual assessment report released Thursday.
“Violations of the Koran and clashes in the Middle East have spin-off effects on risk in Denmark,” Michael Hamann, head of the agency’s Center for the Analysis of Terrorism, said in a statement, according to Bloomberg.
“We believe that the terrorist risk against Denmark and Danish interests abroad will be accentuated at least for the next year,” he added.
Sweden has pushed its terrorism into the background, thwarted attacks following the burning of the Koran and other acts contrary to Islam’s holiest text that prompted threats from jihadists.
The Danish parliament passed a law in December banning the burning of the Koran in public places, to ease tensions with Muslim countries.
In early December 2023, Danish police arrested three more people suspected of planning a terrorist attack, while a fourth was arrested in the Netherlands.
The Times of Israel later said the suspects were making plans to carry out a terror attack against Jewish or Israeli targets.
Caption: Police officers rushing to shut down Push
Former Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif recalled the main points of his country’s retaliation against the United States following the assassination of the commander of the Revolutionary Guards’ Quds Force, Qassem Soleimani, near Baghdad airport in January 2020.
Iran retaliated for the killing by launching an attack on U. S. forces at the Iraqi base of Ain al-Asad.
Zarif recalled the progress in his book, a memoir of his time as foreign minister.
Ten days after the book’s publication, a photo of one of the memoir’s pages detailing the moment Zarif reported on Ain al-Asad’s attack circulated on social media.
He described the scenario at Iran’s Supreme National Security Council after Soleimani’s assassination as “the most bitter experience” of his tenure as foreign minister.
The last resolution he oversaw after Soleimani’s killing on Jan. 3 said there is no urgency for revenge. The most effective way to retaliate is to stick to Lebanon’s example of disguising itself from the other side before launching an attack.
On January 8, he got a phone call from his deputy Abbas Araji informing him of the attack in Ain al-Asad.
Araji woke up through the National Security Council at 3 a. m. to ask it to relay a message through the Swiss ambassador to the United States. Switzerland has represented U. S. interests in Iran since Washington and Tehran broke off relations shortly after the 1979 revolution.
The Americans were informed of the attack through then-Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdulmahdi.
Then Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and Zarif reported after the Americans.
“It looks like Abdulmahdi said it on Tuesday afternoon. Contacting the Iraqi prime minister was the right thing to do, but they wondered why they didn’t tell the president and the foreign minister,” Zarif wrote.
Reuters reported at the time that the minister had received an oral message from Iran saying that retaliation for Soleiman’s killing would begin later and that it would target locations where U. S. forces were deployed.
Zarif revealed that he and his team were preparing messages for the Security Council and other parties in the attack on Ain al-Asad before learning of the downing of the Ukrainian plane shortly after it took off from Tehran.
The Ukraine International Airlines plane bound for Kyiv was shot down shortly after taking off from Tehran’s Imam Khomeini International Airport on January 8, 2020.
The plane was shot down as Iran’s air defense was on high alert hours after its military fired more than 20 ballistic missiles at U. S. troops stationed in Iraq.
This is not the first time that Zarif has explained that he did not report on the progress that occurred on January 8.
In a voice recording leaked in March 2021, Zarif can be heard saying that the government was aware of the cases of the attack some time after it happened, but that they withheld the information from him.
On Feb. 5, former Supreme National Security Council Secretary Ali Shamkhani denied former U. S. President Donald Trump’s claims that he had received an Iranian message before the attack.
During the election campaign, Trump said the Iranians had informed him that they were going to attack a military base with 18 missiles.
There had been no contact between the Iranians and the Americans before the attack on Ain al-Asad.