Arrest of Iranian Diplomat in Germany; A Severe Blow to Hassan Rouhani's Government?

While Hassan Rouhani has been making every effort to find a way to save the 'JCPOA' and has begun a trip to Switzerland and Austria for this purpose, news broke that an Iranian diplomat residing in Vienna was arrested in Germany (a country outside his place of service) for assisting a couple who intended to bomb a National Council of Resistance conference in Paris. The Belgian federal prosecutor, who announced this news, stated that the couple in question held Iranian-Belgian citizenship. Thus, according to the contents of this news, this sabotage act raised concerns across three European countries (Belgium, Austria, and Germany), ultimately leading to the arrest of the mentioned diplomat (Asadollah Asadi) and the revocation of his diplomatic immunity. In this context, the Iranian ambassador in Vienna has been summoned to the Austrian Foreign Ministry, and the local government's protest has been communicated to the ambassador. Some German media have also claimed that the Iranian diplomat delivered the explosive material discovered by the police to the detainees. Although Mohammad Javad Zarif, Iran's Foreign Minister, tweeted that his government is ready to cooperate in investigating this event and believes this is a trick to influence Rouhani's trip, the dimensions of this news reflect the concerns of all European countries that remember previous instances of terrorist actions by the Islamic Republic in Europe, especially if the news of the revocation of the Iranian diplomat's immunity is true, which would lead to his expulsion as an 'undesirable element' from Austria. If the news of an Iranian diplomat's involvement in a terrorist act is accurate, not only would the Islamic Republic be accused of involvement in this act, but worse, the use of 'diplomatic cover' for such sabotage actions would call into question the integrity of Iranian embassies in Europe. Terrorism is a forbidden area for Europe, and using diplomatic cover for terrorist actions is a red line that would create a serious situation for all Iranian embassies and representations in Europe. The assassination of opponents of the Islamic Republic is an old issue that has almost been coeval with the life of the Islamic Republic. Two months after the establishment of the Islamic Republic, Shahrayar Shafigh, son of Ashraf Pahlavi, was assassinated in Paris in Azar 1358. Abdolrahman Ghasemloo, the former Secretary-General of the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan, was also assassinated in July 1368 in Vienna, Austria's capital. Following this assassination, Shapour Bakhtiar, the last Prime Minister of the Pahlavi government, was assassinated in August 1370 along with his secretary, Soroush Katibeh, in Paris. In August 1371, Fereydoun Farrokhzad, a famous Iranian singer and entertainer, was brutally murdered in Bonn, Germany. However, what placed the spotlight on assassinations abroad was the assassination of Sadegh Sharafkandi, Ghasemloo's successor in the leadership of the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan, along with three of his companions in a restaurant named 'Mikounos' in Berlin in September 1371, which sparked a high-profile case. As a result of this assassination, extensive judicial investigations were conducted that lasted nearly six years. Eventually, a German court not only convicted the perpetrators of this murder but also accused senior officials of the Islamic Republic, including Hashemi Rafsanjani, the then President of Iran, Ali Fallahian, the then Minister of Intelligence, Ali Akbar Velayati, the then Minister of Foreign Affairs, and Seyyed Ali Khamenei, the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic, of involvement in this assassination. Consequently, the relationship between Iran and the European Union cooled significantly, and EU members summoned all their ambassadors to express their strong protest. After Mohammad Khatami came to power in 1376, although relations between Iran and the EU improved, the Islamic Republic guaranteed that it would never resort to similar actions within the geographical area of the European Union. Therefore, if the news of an assassin's involvement under diplomatic cover is true, it would violate an agreement that had been made between the Islamic Republic and the EU following the Mikounos court ruling. Thus, at a time when Hassan Rouhani's government is focusing all its efforts on reviving the JCPOA and the country's economy, this news could not only be considered a severe blow to all his efforts but could also bring Iran-EU relations back to square one.