It had already been suggested that Nicaragua has now finally closed its embassy in Berlin. The background is the country’s lawsuit over German aid to Israel, which is currently being heard by the highest UN court.
After Nicaragua filed a lawsuit against Germany at the International Court of Justice, the Central American state has finally closed its embassy in Berlin. In the future, the official business will be taken over by Nicaragua’s diplomatic mission in Austria, an employee of the Nicaraguan embassy in Vienna confirmed to the dpa news agency. Accordingly, consular tasks will also be carried out from Austria in the future. Also the Foreign Office confirmed the closure on its website the embassy.
The authoritarian government of President Daniel Ortega had previously announced in the official gazette the accreditation of the Nicaraguan ambassador based in Vienna, Sabra Murillo, as ambassador to Germany. According to the Foreign Office, a few hundred Nicaraguan citizens live in Germany and around 1,000 Germans live in Nicaragua.
The background is Nicaragua’s lawsuit, which is currently being heard by the International Court of Justice. The country accuses Germany of contributing to genocide in the Gaza Strip by supplying arms to Israel. Nicaragua is demanding, among other things, an immediate stop to deliveries and the resumption of funding for the UN Palestinian relief agency UNRWA.
Federal Government: “The allegations have no basis whatsoever”
The federal government rejected the allegations before the court in The Hague. “These allegations have no legal or factual basis,” said the head of the German delegation, Tania von Uslar-Gleichen. The Federal Republic is neither violating the Genocide Convention nor international humanitarian law.
“Germany’s actions in this conflict are firmly rooted in international law,” said the Commissioner for International Law. It is being examined whether Israel is complying with international law when using weapons supplied from Germany. “Germany is doing its utmost to live up to its responsibility towards both the Israeli and the Palestinian people.”
In Berlin, Federal Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock referred to an “incredible dilemma” that Germany had to face. “Israel has the right, like every country in the world, to defend itself against these terrorist attacks, which continue to be carried out with the aim of destroying Israel as a state,” emphasized the Green politician. At the same time, the federal government has always made it clear that Israel has a duty to distinguish “between Hamas terrorists and the civilian population.”
Israel rejects allegations of genocide
Israel has repeatedly rejected allegations of genocide. It invokes its right to self-defense after the massacres by the militant Islamist Hamas and other extremist organizations on October 7th. At that time, the terrorists killed around 1,200 people.
Israel’s subsequent attacks on the Gaza Strip killed more than 30,000 people, according to Hamas-controlled health authorities. The pressure on the Israeli government has increased in recent weeks. More and more countries are accusing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government of acting without consideration for the population.
Conflict parties as a source
In the current situation, information on the course of the war, shelling and casualties provided by the Palestinian and Israeli conflict parties cannot be directly verified by an independent body.