The strange detention of EU diplomats returning from Tehran | Hacker News Reader

The strange detention of EU diplomats returning from Tehran

responsiblestatecraft.org

44 pointsnnx29 comments

Note 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/

The medium also belongs to Quincy Institute whose leadership include individuals widely considered to be lobbying on behalf of the Iranian regime.

This article is full of one sided speculations, anybody has an article with a different view?

It 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.

> 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.

Documents could be to check if the diplomatic passport is genuine? Diplomatic immunity should not stretch that far, should it? Phones sounds dodgy though.

Ever heard of diplomatic bags? Taking phones away in this day and age almost certainly means a compromised device.

Do we know the phone was in a diplomatic bag?

Generally 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.

Anything the diplomat is carrying already can't be searched, the diplomatic bag just exists so a diplomat doesn't need to carry everything themselves.

TIL Fráncfort is the correct spelling in Spanish.

[0] https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fr%C3%A1ncfort_del_Meno

A 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.

Everyone spies on everyone. Especially on their allies/friends/etc.

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.

Just speculation but... There have been a bunch of issues with single countries inside the EU doing the USs bidding. Given how the EU is deviating strongly from US policy, if I were country 1, I'd be worried countries 2-26 might be leaking, undermining or otherwise breaking ranks...

Such is the problem of being a very lose union with a lot of potential power...

I 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?

I 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.

I appreciate your sentiments and, as a U.S. citizen, there are doubtless many aspects of this situation that would be opaque to me.

I'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.

As somebody in this world, there is so much going on behind the scenes that to speculate would be a waste of time.

This 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.

There 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.

This is absolutely untrue. Diplomats are routinely held and searched, hence diplomatic pouches.

Article 29. 24 in regards to the phone.

http://legal.un.org/ilc/texts/instruments/english/convention...

Good catch, thanks

Reply on news.ycombinator.com