German city sticks with Isfahan partnership that fired suicide drones at Israel
| Published date | 20 April 2024 |
| Author | BENJAMIN WEINTHAL |
| Publication title | Jerusalem Post, The: Web Edition Articles (Israel) |
Calls for Horn to end the twin city partnership grew after Iran's regime fired over 300 missiles and suicide drones at Israel. Isfahan is the main hub of Iran's missile production program and its illicit nuclear weapons apparatus.
Lieutenant Colonel (Retired) Jonathan Conricus, who served as the Israeli army's international spokesperson from 2017 to 2023, told the Jerusalem Post: "I find it odd that a city still has a connection to an official institution from the Islamic Republic of Iran. Ending the partnership would send a message to the hostile Iranian regime that this city, like all German cities, adheres to German values."
Dr. Efraim Zuroff, the world's leading Nazi-hunter and head of the Simon Wiesenthal Center's Jerusalem office, told the Post that the twin city partnership "makes Freiburg looks a bunch of total idiots." He said that "To have a twin city agreement with a city in Iran does not make any sense. It encourages Iran to continue to do what they are doing—spreading death and destruction."
Zuroff stressed that "Freiburg is not in line with the general attitude in Germany."
Addressing the Iranian people
Ben Sabti, who led the IDF Spokesperson's platforms in Persian, which was created to address the Iranian people directly, told the Post that "Iranian drones were sent from Isfahan" to attack Israel.
Sabti, who was born in Tehran and is research fellow for Institute for National Security Studies, added that in Isfahan "There are many military bases" in Isfahan because it is in the heart of Ian and it is "very secure" for Iran to place military installations in the central province of Isfahan.
Israel, according to foreign media reports, on Friday launched a counter-strike against an air base in Isfahan and hit a key part of Iran's S-300 air defense system. The New York Times reported on Saturday.
Freiburg is widely considered one of the most hospitable European cities for Iran's regime, which was classified as the world's largest state-sponsor of terrorism by the Biden administration. Zuroff noted that Isfahan is the "center of nuclear weapons production" in Iran.
The campaign to end the reported appeasement of Iran's regime by Freiburg's mayor, Martin Horn, and the left-wing Green and Social Democratic parties in the city council has been largely led by Iranian dissidents.
Dr. Kazem Moussavi, a German-Iranian dissident who has campaigned against the...
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