Bonn Seeks to Renew Ties With Iran
BONN — Germany said Tuesday that it wants to renew ties with Iran’s new, more moderate Cabinet, 4 1/2 months after a German court’s ruling that Tehran had ordered the 1992 contract slaying of Iranian dissidents in Berlin chilled bilateral relations.
“After the long pause for thought . . . we want to reestablish contacts slowly with Iran,” Foreign Minister Klaus Kinkel said in an interview to run in today’s edition of the daily Neue Ruhr Zeitung.
The text was released by the Foreign Ministry.
“We should deal openly with the apparently more liberal new government,” Kinkel said of the Iranian Cabinet sworn in this month.
All European Union countries except Greece withdrew their ambassadors from Tehran after the ruling by a Berlin court that Iran’s top leaders had ordered the assassination of four Kurdish dissidents in the city.
The EU also suspended its policy of “critical dialogue” with Tehran, a strategy that involved maintaining trade and political ties while discussing human rights issues.
Iran, which strongly rejected the court’s verdict, has said the EU envoys may return to Tehran but has indicated that the German ambassador must be the last, a formula that Bonn has denounced as an attempt to undermine the solidarity of EU partners.
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