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Iran's ambassador to Germany, Majid Nili, was summoned to the Foreign Office on Tuesday – shortly after the German ambassador in Tehran had been summoned to the Iranian Foreign Ministry. These are reciprocal diplomatic measures in response to critical comments made by German Chancellor Friedrich Merz about the situation in Iran. The Spanish Foreign Ministry was the first to take this measure. It had summoned the Iranian ambassador to Madrid.

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Ambassador Nili was “invited” to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs today, Tuesday, y, to hear the German government's views on the situation in Iran.“The Iranian regime's brutal crackdown on its own people is shocking,” the AA said in a statement on “X” afterwards. “We urge Iran to end the violence against its own citizens and to respect their rights.”

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Iran sees this as a normal countermeasure, as the German ambassador had previously been summoned to the Foreign Ministry in Tehran. The Iranian ambassador explained his country's view to the AA. He pointed out the different nature of the demonstrations. In the first few days, the demonstrations had been peaceful protests. At this stage, the president had assured the demonstrators that talks would be held. However, in the days that followed, starting on January 8, the situation changed and terrorist acts were committed. The talks served as an “exchange of views,” it was said afterwards. The parties discussed how to proceed.

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Earlier, during his trip to India, Chancellor Merz had commented on the mass protests and the regime's violent response. He said he believed the regime would soon come to an end. Speaking in the Indian city of Bangalore, he said: “I am currently concerned about reports of increasing violence by the police, the so-called Revolutionary Guards in Iran, against their own people.” He wanted to take this opportunity to once again “call on the mullah regime to stop this violence immediately.”

"When a regime can only hold on to power through violence, it is effectively finished. I assume that we are currently witnessing the last days and weeks of this regime.“ It has no legitimacy among the population through elections anyway. ”The population is now rising up against this regime."

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Merz added: "I hope that there is a way to end this conflict peacefully. The mullah regime must now also recognize this. We are in close contact with the American government and with European governments. We already expressed our views in this regard last week in the E3 format—the United Kingdom, France, and Germany. Foreign policy makers, including foreign ministers, are in close contact with each other to ensure that there can be a peaceful transition to a democratically legitimate government in Iran."

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