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The strange detention of EU diplomats returning from Tehran
- andi999 4y agoThis article is full of one sided speculations, anybody has an article with a different view?
- rich_sasha 4y agoIt reads like making a mountain out of a mole hill. Yes, diplomatic immunity is a big thing, but things like this happen. In particular breaking diplomatic immunity is usually OK if you find something incriminating, which also happens occasionally. There is then some handwaving, “ah it was a mistake BUT look what we found!”. I agree it is inconceivable that the decision to detain EU diplomats was a low-down decision of the local force, but what exactly is behind it is hard to say.
- nl 4y ago> In particular breaking diplomatic immunity is usually OK if you find something incriminating, This is completely untrue. I've never heard of it happening in a major company in any circumstances. Sometimes diplomats are expelled for things they have done, but they documents taken away and phones searched at an airport? Never.
- andi999 4y agoDocuments could be to check if the diplomatic passport is genuine? Diplomatic immunity should not stretch that far, should it? Phones sounds dodgy though.
- melony 4y agoEver heard of diplomatic bags? Taking phones away in this day and age almost certainly means a compromised device.
- andi999 4y agoDo we know the phone was in a diplomatic bag?
- melony 4y agoGenerally speaking, anything related to a diplomat cannot be touched (outside of physical security concerns). This includes their immediate family, their car, their entourage. Personal items and documents obviously fall under this since they may contain state secrets.
- boomboomsubban 4y agoAnything the diplomat is carrying already can't be searched, the diplomatic bag just exists so a diplomat doesn't need to carry everything themselves.
- andix 4y agoThis article sounds strange. We don’t know the reason why they were held for a short time. But without that, it’s really hard to say if it was justified. Even if they are diplomats.
- boomboomsubban 4y agoThere is no "justified" for diplomats. The Vienna Convention says diplomats can not be held in any form of detention and their records may never be seized.
- imwillofficial 4y agoThis is absolutely untrue. Diplomats are routinely held and searched, hence diplomatic pouches.
- boomboomsubban 4y agoArticle 29. 24 in regards to the phone. http://legal.un.org/ilc/texts/instruments/english/conventions/9_1_1961.pdf http://legal.un.org/ilc/texts/instruments/english/convention...
- imwillofficial 4y agoGood catch, thanks
- raverbashing 4y ago
- paganel 4y agoThe law says that you don't detain diplomats, so them ignoring those diplomatic passports and choosing to ignore the law should mean something. As you say, German (police) usually doesn't break the law.
- raverbashing 4y agoYes. But you probably need some time to validate the passport as well
- NullPrefix 4y agoValidate diplomatic passports by taking the phones away?
- dkjaudyeqooe 4y agoThe point the parent was making is that Germans can be a little inflexible when it comes to "the rules". There's a tendency to follow them regardless of the larger context. So the diplomatic law wins out, but not in the mind of the border agent who has been instructed by the system to search the parenger using standard procedure (confiscate phones) and is not concerned with things outside the scope of his task, even if his actions are technically illegal.
- oaiey 4y agoGerman here: it is called bureaucracy. The beauty of it: everyone is treated by the same rules, no exceptions, No bending. Diplomatic immunity inside the EU for an EU immunity. What is that? Political/legislative immunity okay but diplomatic immunity? Anyway, no idea what happened there.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- throwaway4good 4y agoA bit much to pin on a single event. And why would Germany do espionage on a Spanish diplomat. Surely Spain and Germany can coordinate vis a vis negotiations with Iran.
- chasil 4y agoI have booked round-trip travel through Frankfurt once before, and I will say that the questions on my return were pointed, but the episode was brief. The greater question for the European Union is the strength of that very union. If the union members lack sufficient trust to honor diplomatic immunity between one another, then what real strength does it have?
- yakak 4y agoI think these interpretations are incorrect. Part of being in the Schengen zone is that police can continue right across borders in hot pursuit, etc. The German officials probably wouldn't have searched a non-EU diplomat because that wouldn't have been cleared up by a discussion with his superior.
- chasil 4y agoI appreciate your sentiments and, as a U.S. citizen, there are doubtless many aspects of this situation that would be opaque to me.
- qiskit 4y agoEveryone spies on everyone. Especially on their allies/friends/etc. https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/us-security-agency-spied-merkel-other-top-european-officials-through-danish-2021-05-30/ https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/us-security-agency-spie... We are led to believe that adversaries spy on each other. The vast majority of spying in the world are allies against allies. The biggest spy rings in the US by far are israeli and british/canadian not the russians or the chinese. It seems counterintuitive, but if you think about it from a practical and geopolitical standpoint, it's fairly obvious. The country that spies the most on the EU members isn't russia, it's the US.
- mbroncano 4y agoTIL Fráncfort is the correct spelling in Spanish. [0] https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fr%C3%A1ncfort_del_Meno https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fr%C3%A1ncfort_del_Meno
- perihelions 4y agoNote that the author is a Latvian diplomat who's involved in the EU-Iran negotiations. He's *probably* not ignorant about the process, or acting in bad faith towards it. - "Eldar Mamedov has degrees from the University of Latvia and the Diplomatic School in Madrid, Spain. He has worked in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Latvia and as a diplomat in Latvian embassies in Washington D.C. and Madrid. Since 2007, Mamedov has served as a political adviser for the social-democrats in the Foreign Affairs Committee of the European Parliament (EP) and is in charge of the EP delegations for inter-parliamentary relations with Iran, Iraq, the Arabian Peninsula, and Mashreq." https://responsiblestatecraft.org/author/emamedov/ https://responsiblestatecraft.org/author/emamedov/
- mehrdada 4y agoThe medium also belongs to Quincy Institute whose leadership include individuals widely considered to be lobbying on behalf of the Iranian regime.
- imwillofficial 4y agoAs somebody in this world, there is so much going on behind the scenes that to speculate would be a waste of time.
- thedailymail 4y agoI'll add my counter-anecdote: I'm a US citizen with an ordinary (non-diplomatic) passport. I visited Iran twice to give talks at research meetings, both during the period when sanctions had been relaxed under Obama. I was worried that having the full-page visas in my passport would result in headaches at immigration to various countries, but I've visited 15 or so countries in Europe, Asia, Oceania and the Americas since then and never been asked a single question about it. (Your mileage may vary.) Anyway, I tend to believe the German authorities on this one.