German foreign minister Annalena Baerbock said on Thursday in New York that it is hard to expect this move by Berlin will significantly affect the already strained relationship with Tehran.

She said: “Our diplomatic relations are already more than at a low point.”

Germany recalled its ambassador to Iran on Tuesday, but decided to keep the German embassy in Iran’s capital Tehran open. “We have sent our strongest protest against the actions of the Iranian regime & reserve the right to take further action,” the ministry said in a post on the X platform.

Iran’s foreign ministry was not immediately available to comment on the German decision.

Jamshid Sharmahd, an oppositionist who also holds U.S. residency, was sentenced to death by the Iranian authorities in 2020 on terror charges. He was executed on Monday.

He was accused by Iran of heading a pro-monarchist group called Tondar, taking part in a deadly 2008 bombing and planning other attacks.

“No terrorist enjoys impunity in Iran. Even if supported by Germany,” Iran’s foreign minister Abbas Araqchi said on the X platform.

Baerbock condemned Iran for playing politics with hostages and accused Tehran of trying to use Germany’s support for Israel in the widening Middle East conflict to justify Sharmahd’s killing.

“Further Germans are also being unfairly held. We are also deeply committed to them and continue to work tirelessly for their release,” she said.

Human rights organisation HAWAR welcomed the decision to close the consulates but said the German government must intensify its efforts to secure the release of another German citizen, Nahid Taghavi, 70, who has been held in Iran since October 2020.

“The Federal Government's lack of planning in dealing with the hostage diplomacy of the Islamic Republic of Iran must finally come to an end,” the organization said in a statement.

Gazelle Sharmahd, the daughter of the executed dual national who also is part of the pro-monarchist group, Tondar, voiced her anger at the governments of the U.S. and Germany for not doing enough to free her father.

“You sold my father to the terrorists, you abandoned my family and our community, you failed in saving your kidnapped hostage,” she wrote on the X platform.

On April 3 last year the international human rights organization Amnesty International appealed to the Iranian government to release Sharmahd. It accused the Iranian government of not giving him a fair trial, refusing him the right to an independent lawyer and subjecting him to torture.

“I urge you to immediately quash the unjust conviction and death sentence of Jamshid Sharmahd, reveal his fate and whereabouts and, in light of his arbitrary detention, immediately release him,” the appeal, in the form of a letter, wrote.

It also informed that Iranian security agents wanted to include Sharmahd in a prisoner exchange deal with former Iranian official, Asadollah Asadi, who is serving a 20-year sentence in Belgium.