BICOM

German authorities searched the homes and businesses of ten suspected Iranian spies yesterday, though no arrests were made.

The Federal Prosecutor’s Office ordered searches across the country, including in Baden-Württemberg, North Rhine-Westphalia, Bavaria and Berlin, after receiving a tip from Germany’s domestic intelligence agency.

The Prosecutor’s Office confirmed that the suspects are thought to have been spying on Israelis, Jewish institutions, Iranian dissidents and other targets “on behalf of an intelligence entity associated with Iran”.

German media have reported that the men are suspected members of the al-Quds Brigade, the external operations arm of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corp (IRGC). German magazine Focus reported that “Al-Quds forces employ killer teams for Iran’s secret service and for the Palestinian terrorist organization, Hamas”.

Israel’s Ambassador to Germany Jeremy Issacharoff said Israel had bolstered security at the Embassy and was warned about the incident.

Israeli media has suggested that Mossad was in close coordination with their German counterparts over the incident, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Israeli intelligence had “helped thwart at least thirty major attacks in dozens of countries in the past two years or so”.

Earlier this month, the German Foreign Ministry rebuked Iran’s ambassador in Berlin after a 31-year-old Pakistani student was convicted of spying on leader of the German-Israel Friendship Society Reinhold Robbe on Iran’s behalf. Iran is thought to be recruiting non-Iranian, Shiite Muslims for such purposes.

A German Foreign Ministry official confirmed that “spying on people and institutions with special ties to the state of Israel on German soil is an egregious violation of German law” and the Iranian Ambassador was told that “such activities would not be tolerated and were completely unacceptable”.

The Jerusalem Post notes that “Iran’s proxy, Hezbollah, operates legally in Germany” because “the Merkel administration has declined to outlaw all of Hezbollah in the Federal Republic”.