Israelis and Jews as well as their organizations are the focus of Iran’s infamous intelligence apparatus in Germany, according to an eye-popping passage in the federal government’s newly released domestic intelligence report.
“Spying activities against (pro) Israeli and (pro) Jewish targets in Germany are therefore part of the task of intelligence agencies in Iran,” wrote the German intelligence officials in the report that was released on Friday.
The passage in the intelligence was cited under the section: “Islamic Republic of Iran intelligence services.”
The intelligence officials wrote that “Among Iran’s declared enemies” are the United States, the state of Israel, its representatives and supporters of the Jewish state.
“This can include leading representatives of Jewish organizations in the diaspora,” noted the intelligence agents.
The report did not cite concrete examples of Iranian intelligence services targeting Israeli or Jewish institutions in Germany during 2019. The intelligence document chronicles threats to Germany’s democratic, constitutional order for the year 2019.
However, the mere mention that Iran’s vast intelligence system is operating largely unhindered in Germany and Iran has Jewish and Israel targets within its scope raises a host of security and counter-terrorism questions.
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and its Quds Force—a highly specialized unconventional warfare unit in the IRGC- have been active in Germany over the years. The US government has designated the IRGC and the Quds Force foreign terrorist organizations.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s administration refused to sanction the IRGC or the Qud Force for terror operations on German soil.
The Jerusalem sent email press queries on Monday to Josef Schuster, the president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, and his spokeswomen Jutta Wagemann.
In 2017, a Berlin court sentenced 31-year-old Pakistani citizen Mustufa Haidar Syed-Naqfi to four years and three months in prison for working for Iran’s intelligence service to spy “against Germany and another NATO member.”
Chancellor Merkel, however, did not expel any Iranian diplomats or sanction Iranian officials for Syed-Naqfi ‘s terror plot on German soil.
According to German prosecutors, Haidar Syed-Naqfi was assigned to identify Israeli and Jewish institutions and Israel advocates in Germany, France and other unnamed Western European countries for possible attacks. He monitored a German-Jewish newspaper’s headquarters in Berlin and Reinhold Robbe, the former head of the German-Israel Friendship Society.
Haidar Syed-Naqfi spied on French-Israeli business Prof. David Rouach, who teaches at the elite Ecole Supérieure de Commerce de Paris and served as head of the French-Israeli Chamber of Commerce, and, according to German authorities, his actions were “a clear indication of an assassination attempt.”
The Quds Force paid Haidar Syed-Naqfi at least €2,052 from July 2015 through July 2016. A joint Iran-Hezbollah terrorist operation murdered five Israelis in Burgas, Bulgaria in 2012.
Source » jpost