Iranian Opposition Blasts Berlin Mayor For Meeting Tehran Counterpart

More than 100 people demonstrated in Berlin on Friday against the German capital’s Mayor Michael Müller for meeting his Tehran counterpart, Pirouz Hanachi, earlier that day. Hanach had participated in a rally calling for the destruction of Israel.

Iranian dissident Kazem Moussavi shouted at Müller as he was walking away from Berlin’s City Hall: “Long Live Israel, Long live the Iranian opposition!”

Moussavi, from the Iranian Green Party in exile, also said “Down with the Islamic Republic.”

One of the videos showing Moussavi confronting Müller has been viewed more than 17,000 times.

Ulrike Becker, a spokeswoman for Stop the Bomb in Berlin, a group devoted to ending the Iranian regime’s nuclear program, said that “The policy of dialogue with the Iranian regime has clearly failed after more than 30 years. The human rights situation in Iran has deteriorated in recent years. The Revolutionary Guards and Iran-led Hezbollah are threatening Israel and destabilizing and destroying Iran’s neighbors – Syria, Iraq and Yemen. It is time for a democratic alternative. Berlin can make a start here and show that the city seeks and promotes exchange with democratic and liberal forces from Iran.”

Benjamin Weinthal is a European correspondent at The Jerusalem Post and a fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.