2/9/2006

Bertrand Benoit in Berlin and Gareth Smyth in Tehran, ft.com

Iranians seeking visas for Germany ahead of this summer's football World Cup could face heightened background checks and some might be barred from entering the country, German politicians warned yesterday.

The warning comes as Berlin is toughening its stance on the Islamic republic. The German government is accusing it of using the Danish cartoon controversy to foment some of the unrest that has spread throughout the Islamic world.

"When, for instance, the entourage of the Iranian national team enters the country, we will look very closely into whether there are any fanatics among them," Günther Beckstein, the Bavarian interior minister, told a German newspaper yesterday.

The threat provoked dismay in Iran. Football is a national passion, with top matches attracting 100,000 fans and there is avid anticipation of the World Cup.

"This is stupid – people will resent the German government if they do this," Kamran, a 23-year-old Iranian football fan, said yesterday. "This is the World Cup, not the German cup."

Iranian football fans have been expressing doubt they would get visas since last June when victory over Bahrain secured Iran's qualification for the World Cup. Last month, Bayern Munich played a friendly in front of 50,000 fans in Tehran against Persepolis, a leading Iranian club side.

Policing comes under the remit of Germany's 16 regional governments. The federal government, which is responsible for border controls, said it would treat religious extremists in the same way as football hooligans trying to enter Germany during the World Cup.

Gernot Erler, Germany's deputy foreign minister, said this week Iran was using popular outrage over the cartoons as ammunition in its dispute with the west over its nuclear programme. "Some of these demonstrations are being organised," he said. Mr Erler also held the regime responsible for the decision by the Hamschahri daily, owned by the city of Tehran, to launch a cartoon competition on the Nazi genocide of European Jews. "The group around [Iranian president] Ahmadi-Nejad is seeking an escalation," Mr Erler said. "It is a serious cause for concern when a state is fuelling a cultural clash in this way to cement its power."

In a joint declaration, 16 Turkish and Muslim associations in Germany urged an end to violent protests in the Middle East. While they condemned the publication of the cartoons, the organisations also criticised Iran for manipulating Muslims' outrage. Oguz Ücüncü, secretary general of Milli Görüs, a Muslim association criticised in the past for harbouring extremists, described Mr Ahmadi-Nejad's position as "incendiary". His anti-Semitic outbursts, he said, were incompatible with "our deepest religious conviction".