Germany summons Iran’s ambassador over anti-Israel spying

Germany said on Tuesday it had summoned Iran’s ambassador to reprimand Tehran against spying on individuals and groups with close ties to Israel, Reuters reported. The move came after the March conviction of a Pakistani man for spying for Iran in Germany went into force. Mustufa Haidar Syed-Naqfi was convicted of gathering intelligence on Reinhold Robbe, the former head of the German-Israel Friendship Society, and an Israeli-French economics professor in Paris, for Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards. The Foreign Ministry summoned the Iranian ambassador to deliver the sharp rebuke once the German constitutional court rejected his appeal. The meeting took place on December 22 but was not disclosed until now. Philipp Ackermann, acting director of the Foreign Ministry’s political section, had reportedly told the Iranian ambassador that “such activities would not be tolerated and were completely unacceptable.”