Germany Renews Calls On Tehran To End Brutal Protest Crackdown

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock called Thursday on Iranian authorities to immediately end their brutal treatment of protesters and investigate the death of Mahsa Amini.

In a thread of tweets, she said that it has nothing to do with religion or culture if the police beat a woman to death, as it seems to be the case for the young Iranian girl whose death sparked an uprising across Iran.

Condemning the bloody crackdown on popular protests, she said “The clubs and the tear gas are not an expression of power,”

“The violence by the regime in Iran speaks of pure fear,” Baerbock said, noting that nothing scares violent rulers more than a group of women speaking out together.

"We are doing everything within the EU framework to impose sanctions against those responsible for oppressing women in Iran," echoing similar remarks by other European countries about possible sanctions on Iran over the death of the 22-year-old woman and the clampdown on the ensuing protests.

“I summoned the Iranian ambassador and we made it clear in that the Iranian authorities must stop their brutal actions immediately. Not only the death of Jina (Mahsa Amini), but also that of many demonstrators, needs to be clarified,” she said

Iran's state-run newspaper Tehran Times claimed Thursday that four European countries, including Germany and Netherlands, and an Asian state have been involved in inciting "riots" in Iran. It said the German embassy in Tehran has served as a coordinating center for other EU embassies “to fan the flames of the protests.”

The German embassy encouraged members of Mahsa’s family to speak out against the police, it alleged, adding that the embassy promised them that Germany will give them German citizenship, in case they were prosecuted by the Iranian authorities.