No representatives of the Iranian government will take part in this year’s Munich Security Conference (MSK) due to the recent massive violence against protesters. An “invitation to individual government representatives from Iran,” which was issued several weeks ago, will not be maintained in view of “current events,” the MSK press team told the AFP news agency on Friday evening.
The “Bild” newspaper (Saturday edition) reported that, among others, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and his deputy were disinvited from the internationally important event in mid-February. The federal government had previously advised against sticking with Araghtschi’s invitation.
In its message to AFP, the MSK press team emphasized that the Munich Security Conference “fundamentally does not explain” its invitation policy. In this case, however, she decided to comment “due to the understandably great public interest”. The “invitation process” to the MSK is “always only completed at the start of the conference,” it continued. The organizers “continually monitor all relevant current political developments to ensure that the most important security policy perspectives can be reflected at the conference.”
Foreign Office: Iranian participation “inappropriate”
A spokesman for the Foreign Office in Berlin said on Friday, referring to the Iranian foreign minister: “We consider participation to be inappropriate given the bloody suppression of protests.” The spokesman added that the federal government had “advised against this invitation,” but that the MSK issued its invitations “independently” and did not follow government guidelines.
The protests in Iran began at the end of December. They were initially sparked by the poor economic situation, but then quickly expanded into a mass movement against the religious and political leadership of the Islamic Republic.
The authorities took brutal action against the demonstrators. The AA spokesman on Friday referred to trustworthy sources that at least 2,600 people had been killed and 19,000 more detained since the protests began. The human rights organization Iran Human Rights (IHR), based in Norway, even speaks of 3,428 demonstrators who have been proven to have been killed by Iranian security forces.
