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Iran: Continue to side with the regime. Regime change in Iran requires a strong opposition, says security expert [Counter Extremism Project Senior Director] Hans-Jakob Schindler. However, leadership and a shared vision are currently lacking.

Date
June 23, 2025
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While Fordo and Natanz, the two main uranium enrichment sites, have "suffered serious damage, and these reserves are not going to enrich themselves," notes Hans-Jakob Schindler, a former German diplomat in Tehran who worked on Iran's nuclear program. He now heads the Counter Extremism Project, an NGO fighting extremist movements.

Date
June 23, 2025
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Though its proxies Hezbollah and Hamas have been crippled by war with Israel, its militias in Iraq could still strike US bases, though this would risk retaliation, it could blockade the Strait of Hormuz, or target regional actors like Saudi Arabia. Alternatively, said former UK ambassador to Yemen Edmund Fitton-Brown last night, it might act as if the strikes never happened. “If you consider how contained this attack was and how specific it was, it could be seen not as Trump entering the war on Israel’s side but, rather, doing what he promised to do ten years ago,” he said.
Date
June 22, 2025
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“What makes them unique is the ‘wolves in sheep’s clothing’ approach, which aims at fooling law enforcement into believing Active Clubs are just about sports,” Alexander Ritzmann, a political scientist and senior advisor at the Counter Extremism Project who studies the movement, told the Guardian. In a 2023 report, Ritzmann warned that the ultimate goal of Active Clubs “is the creation of a stand-by militia of trained and capable [right wing extremists] who can be activated when the need for coordinated violent action on a larger scale arises”.
Date
June 21, 2025
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“Political polarization, combined with the idea that one’s opponents are irredeemably evil and that there are no other legal avenues to create change, can lead to violence,” said Joshua Fisher-Birch [CEP Researcher], a terrorism analyst who closely tracks extremists across the political spectrum. “There are several guides online for assassination, guerrilla warfare or similar violent acts, as well as counter-surveillance manuals shared by individuals in communication apps such as Telegram and online libraries.”

Date
June 21, 2025
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The Mullah regime in Tehran has so far denied that it is working on its own nuclear arsenal. However, the amount of enriched uranium casts doubt on Tehran's claim. "As the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency, editor's note) has confirmed, Iran has increased its enrichment to 60 percent, and there has also been an increase in missile tests," security expert Hans Jakob Schindler told Deutsche Welle (DW). This situation suggests that Iran may be heading towards the construction of a nuclear bomb.
Date
June 19, 2025
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CEP Senior Advisor Edmund Fitton-Brown writes: The West is often accused of "double standards", whether in the field of human rights or foreign interventions, environmental targets or nuclear proliferation. I have had to answer this charge with monotonous regularity throughout my diplomatic career in the Arab World and my five-year stint with the United Nations. The accusation that concerns me here is that we have no moral right to prevent countries like Iran from seeking a nuclear capability when Israel has had nuclear weapons for at least half a century and is not a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Why are we not trying harder to challenge that? Surely we should insist on the whole Middle East becoming a nuclear weapons-free zone? And, in any case, how can we be so sure that Iran doesn't simply want nuclear energy for peaceful, civilian purposes, as it says it does?
Date
June 19, 2025
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The escalation between Israel and the Iranian mullah regime raises the question of changing the system. There is little cross-party sympathy for the mullah regime in Germany. However, experts such as Hans-Jakob Schindler also warn of "chaos" and negative consequences.
Date
June 19, 2025
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After its blistering attacks on Iran, how much support would Israel need from the United States to completely destroy the regime’s nuclear program? Our guests: Ryma Sheermohammadi (Iran expert); Kristin Helberg (Middle East expert); Hans-Jakob Schindler (terrorism expert); Shani Rozanes (DW).
Date
June 19, 2025
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However, Germany has no influence anyway, said Middle East expert and extremism expert Hans-Jakob Schindler from the Counter Extremism Project on the fringes of a Tagesspiegel panel discussion in Berlin: "We are just onlookers. After the Americans withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal in 2018, Germany retreated into a corner, we are no longer involved."
Date
June 17, 2025
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