In line with the interventionist stance of Berlin and Vienna against Tehran, the foreign ministries of Germany and Austria summoned the Iranian envoys.

Following Tehran's measure of sentencing the ring leader of the Tondar terrorist group to death, Germany on Wednesday summoned two employees of the Iranian embassy and ordered them to leave the country.

The Justice Department of Tehran Province announced on Tuesday that Jamshid Sharmahd had been convicted of “corruption on earth” through directing terrorist activities and has been sentenced to death.

The Iranian court ruled that the 67-year-old Iranian national had been involved in plots to carry out 23 terrorist attacks and had managed to implement five cases.

In August 2020, the Iranian Intelligence Ministry announced that the country's security agents captured Sharmahd, the ringleader of the Tondar terrorist group.

The ministry said it has dealt a heavy blow to the Tondar group that planned and carried out a deadly terrorist attack on Seyyed Al-Shohada mosque in the Southern city of Shiraz, Fars Province, in 2008, which killed 14 people and wounded 215 others.

Sharmahd, who holds German citizenship and used to reside in the US, personally planned and directed the terror attack.

It added that the terrorist group had also planned to carry out other large-scale operations, like blowing up several places, including the Sivand Dam in Shiraz, the Mausoleum of the late founder of the Islamic Republic Imam Khomeini in Southern Tehran, and the Tehran International Book Fair, which were all foiled.

Tehran says the US must be held accountable for "supporting this terrorist grouplet (Tondar) and other [terrorist] outfits as well as criminals that lead sabotage, armed and terrorist operations from within the United States against the Iranian people" and shed the blood of Iranians.

In a relevant development, the Austrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced that it has summoned Iran's ambassador to Vienna after an Austrian citizen was sentenced to seven-and-a-half years in jail in Iran for spying.

The Austrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced that the spy was sentenced to jail on Monday, and the ministry summoned Tehran's ambassador in Vienna on Tuesday to express "objection" to this sentence.

This ministry also stated that the ambassador of Austria in Iran has met with this person three times.

This comes as the Iranian Foreign Ministry has not yet confirmed or rejected the news.

 

 

By MEHR