FM Cohen heads to Germany Tuesday to seek tougher measures against Iran

Foreign Minister Eli Cohen will take off early tomorrow morning for Germany, to push for stiffer Western measures against Iran.

Cohen’s headline meeting will be with his German counterpart Annalena Baerbock. He will push for the European Union to designate Iran as a terrorist group, and will urge Germany to formally give up on any return to the 2015 nuclear deal.

Cohen will try to use momentum from his Ukraine trip and growing European anger at Iran for its support of Russia’s military efforts to bring Western powers closer to Israel’s position.

“The visit to Germany is a strategic visit in the framework of the efforts to stop Iran from attaining a nuclear weapon,” Cohen says in a statement. “We will continue to maintain the important relations with Germany in the bilateral plane, and in the European and international arenas.”

Cohen and Baerbock spoke by phone in early January, when Israel’s top diplomat was making his initial round of calls upon taking office.