In an interview, [CEP Senior Director] Hans-Jakob Schindler discusses Europe’s role in the Strait of Hormuz and the possibility of deploying ground troops. He says that the abstract threat to Germany has increased.

[CEP Senior Director] Terrorism expert Hans-Jakob Schindler views Tehran’s threat as a kind of act of desperation, but he also stresses that this warning must be taken seriously. While it may not be “our war,” he says, it is “our problem.”

U.S. President Trump is asking for help in securing the Strait of Hormuz, calling on NATO, among others, to step up. But many countries feel sidelined by Washington and are refusing. Europe, however, should have used the situation to strike a “deal in Trump’s style,” says Iran expert [CEP Senior Director} Hans-Jakob Schindler.

The Jewish community is being shaken by a worldwide series of terrorist attacks. Expert Hans-Jakob Schindler explains what this has to do with the hybrid warfare of the Iranian mullah regime.

Middle East expert [CEP Senior Director] Hans-Jakob Schindler analyzes the situation in the Middle East and explains how things might unfold in Iran: “There are three scenarios, none of which is particularly good for Europe.”

“The relationship between the cartels and Hezbollah is long-standing, significant and multifaceted,” the senior director of the Counter Extremism Project, Hans-Jakob Schindler, told The New York Sun. Mr. Schindler said the “strategically most significant part” of the relationship between the cartels and Hezbollah is financial cooperation in the international illicit drug trade.

“This also includes money laundering activities that Hezbollah is now also able to offer other organized crime networks as a service,” he said, adding, “This role has only increased since the war with Israel following the attack of Hezbollah on Israel” the day after Hamas’s assault on October 7, 2023.

Where is Mojtaba Khamenei? Days after being named Iran's supreme leader following Ali Khamenei's death, Mojtaba Khamenei has not appeared on camera. Hans-Jakob Schindler of the Counter Extremism Project tell DW what's known about him.

[CEP Senior Director] Middle East and terrorism expert Hans-Jakob Schindler doubted whether the current strategy would achieve the former in particular. The current aim is to bring about regime change through air strikes so that sufficient numbers of people from the security apparatus defect to the opposition side. In return, the Iranian regime would have a plan to drive up the economic costs for the USA and the world so that they would end the war for economic reasons. In his opinion, it should not come to that, because: "If the regime survives, we will see chaos."

Expert Hans-Jakob Schindler assumes that Ahmadinejad is still alive. And there must be a reason for that. “For right on the very first day, the U.S. and Israel succeeded—100 percent—in killing those individuals who had been identified as priority targets,” says the Senior Director at the international Counter Extremism Project (CEP) in Berlin. Ahmadinejad, it seems, was likely not among them.

According to terrorism expert Hans-Jakob Schindler, bringing about regime change solely through airstrikes is an extremely risky undertaking. The airstrikes would have to continue until a sufficient number of security apparatus employees defected to the opposition.