“... The people who have been in prison so far cannot therefore be described as prisoners or detainees. "They are hostages of the regime," says Schindler, who now heads the Counter Extremism Project, a think tank that focuses on terrorism. Ultimately, the Iranians are not interested in giving the German detainees a fair trial, but rather in convicting them on flimsy evidence in order to use them as political bargaining chips. This was also the case with Helmut Hofer. "The Iranians' idea was to exchange him for the terrorist Darabi and his accomplices," says Schindler. Kazem Darabi was the mastermind behind the Mykonos attack in Berlin, in which four Kurdish politicians in exile were killed. He was sentenced to life imprisonment. Germany did not allow itself to be blackmailed by Iran.” 

In fact, the regime has long been using the conflict with the US for propaganda purposes to strengthen its own position. "The Iranian regime wants to send two messages. Domestically: 'We are strong.' And internationally: 'We can also defend ourselves,'" Middle East expert Hans-Jakob Schindler, director of the Counter Extremism Project, recently explained in an interview with this newsroom.

Counter Extremism Project's Senior Director Dr. Hans-Jakob Schindler discusses the ongoing and developing situation in Iran.
 

Iran fires missiles at the Strait of Hormuz during a military exercise, blocking the central oil export route. Negotiations with the US remain inconclusive. “The Iranians will have difficulty blocking the straits in a real emergency,” says Middle East expert Hans-Jakob Schindler.

What happens now? How likely is it that the US will attack Iran? Barbara Parente discusses this live on ZDFheute with ZDF correspondents David Sauer in Washington and Phoebe Gaa in Tehran, as well as Middle East expert [CEP Senior Director] Hans-Jakob Schindler.

How does the drone attack on an American aircraft carrier fit into this precarious situation? "The Iranian regime wants to send two messages. Domestically: 'We are strong.' And internationally: 'We can also defend ourselves,'" explains Middle East expert Hans-Jakob Schindler, director of the Counter Extremism Project, in an interview with the Frankfurter Rundschau by Ippen.Media. In this tense situation, however, it's playing with fire: "It already has the potential to be suicidal. Or to put it another way: One has to ask whether they've lost their minds," says Schindler. "Flying a drone that close is quite clearly a provocation."