“We want to further reduce irregular migration. To this end, we are now taking further steps that go beyond the comprehensive measures currently in place,” Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said at a news conference on Monday.

“Until we achieve strong protection of the EU’s external borders with the new Common European Asylum System, we need to strengthen controls at our national borders. These controls will also enable effective refoulement,” she adds.

Temporary border controls will be set up at the land borders with France, Luxembourgh, the Netherlands, Belgium and Denmark for a period of six months.

The same measures are already in place on the borders with Poland, the Czech Republic, Austria and Switzerland.

Europe’s Schengen area allows for free travel between member countries. However, member states are allowed to introduce border checks if they feel there is a threat to public policy or internal security. Reintroducing internal border control should only be used as a last resort measure.

Faeser states that 30,000 people were turned away since Germany implemented partial border controls in 2023. She adds that this number will increase now that the border controls are extended to the remaining borders.

Migration policy as key point of political tension

The order comes as the coalition government of Chancellor Olaf Scholz faces pressure to take a tougher stance on irregular migration, as Germany faced a surge of refugees arriving in recent years.

The issue of migration has been a key political talking-point. Germany’s far-right party AfD, who carry a clear anti-immigration message, gained popularity and won its first state election earlier this month in Thuringia.

The announcement on border controls comes a day before the government coalition and the main opposition are set to discuss Germany’s migration policy. It is still unclear whether the CDU/CSU opposition will take part in the talks.

The leader of the group, Friedrich Merz, has demanded the government to clearly state its intention before the new round of talks take place.

“The Federal Minister of the Interior, the Federal Government, has correctly notified Brussels of border controls at all of Germany`s external borders. That is correct. But it is not yet clear whether this means that there will be comprehensive and not limited refoulement.”

Merz adds that they will not accept any relativization or a limited method of rejection. “If the Federal Government wants us to go down this path together, then it will only work if we really do carry out comprehensive refoulement at Germany`s external borders.”

Iran on Monday continued its threat of a “nightmare” attack on Israel following the killing of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in late July, as international concerns remain high over Tehran’s nuclear development program which has run unchecked for more than three years. 

Commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Hossein Salami said “the nightmare of Iran’s inevitable response is shaking Israel day and night,” reported the Jerusalem Post, citing Saudi-owned news outlet Al-Arabiya.

The commander reportedly claimed that Israeli leaders are anxious over the ambiguous threat of what will be a “painful and different” attack than “what you expec[t].”

HEZBOLLAH RELIES ON ‘SOPHISTICATED’ TUNNEL SYSTEM BACKED BY IRAN, NORTH KOREA IN FIGHT AGAINST ISRAEL

Despite the ominous tone set by Salami, Iran has been levying similar threats for over a month at the Jewish state following the killing of Haniyeh during a visit to Tehran on July 31.

Iran has laid the blame squarely on Israel for the assassination, in which it claimed a precision strike missile was used, though Jerusalem has not taken credit for the killing.

The U.S., along with other Middle Eastern nations, have warned Tehran against attacking Israel amid fears that a broader regional war could break out, though concerns remain that Iran could look to launch retaliatory strikes through Hezbollah – the Lebanon-based terrorist organization it has backed for decades. 

A member of Israel’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee in the Knesset, Nissim Vaturi, echoed these concerns on Monday and said he believes it is just “a matter of days” before war between Israel and Hezbollah breaks out in Lebanon. 

Vaturi said Israel needs to take a provocative approach and pre-emptively strike Hezbollah’s strong holds in Lebanon through a series of airstrikes followed by ground invasion – a scenario experts have warned will cause casualty rates that could be higher than those that have incurred during the nearly one-year-long war in Gaza.

“I think it’s time to deal with the north,” he said, according to The Times of Israel. “Our patience has run out.

“There’s no other way,” he continued, adding that Beirut’s Dahiyeh suburb — a major stronghold for Hezbollah outside the capital city — “will look like Gaza.”

Iran has yet to specify how it intends to launch this long-awaited retaliatory strike against Israel, though its reported supply of ballistic missiles to the terrorist organization has kept security experts on heightened alert. 

This photo taken from a position in northern Israel shows a Hezbollah UAV intercepted by Israeli air forces over northern Israel on Aug. 25, 2024. The Israeli military announced that it was conducting pre-emptive strikes in Lebanon after detecting preparations for “large-scale” attacks by the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah. (JALAA MAREY/AFP via Getty Images)

HEZBOLLAH IS THE ‘X-FACTOR’ IN LOOMING ISRAEL, IRAN WAR WITH ‘NATION STATE CAPABILITIES’

Iran is not believed to possess nuclear grade weaponry at this time, but a warning issued by the United Nations nuclear watchdog on Monday once again brought renewed attention to the fact that Tehran’s nuclear program has run unchecked for the last three and half years. 

“It has been more than three and a half years since Iran stopped implementing its nuclear-related commitments under the JCPOA,” Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency Rafael Mariano Grossi told the agency’s board of directors. “Therefore, it is also over three and a half years since the Agency was able to conduct complementary access in Iran. 

“Consequently, the Agency has lost continuity of knowledge in relation to the production and inventory of centrifuges, rotors and bellows, heavy water and uranium ore concentrate,” he added. 

Grossi said that Iran is known to have increased its stockpiles of highly enriched uranium metals of not only 20% purity levels, but 60% – which is just shy of the steps needed to reach weapons grade uranium which is enriched to 90% purity.

Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei alongside a look inside a uranium plant. (Getty Images)

“There has been no progress in resolving the outstanding safeguards issues,” he said, pointing to Iran’s false claims that it has declared all nuclear activities, materials and locations.  “I call upon Iran to implement the Joint Statement through serious engagement with the Agency’s concrete proposals.”

Rossi said he called on new Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian to abide by agreements made under a March 4, 2023 joint statement and urged the president to meet with him in the “not too distant future” so the pair could “establish a constructive dialogue that leads swiftly to real results.”

Israeli military spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari poses next to an Iranian ballistic missile, which fell in Israel on the weekend, during a media tour at the Julis military base near the southern Israeli city of Kiryat Malachi on April 16, 2024. (Getty Images)

The European Union (EU) on Monday further accused Iran of providing short range ballistic missiles to Russia to aid its war effort against Ukraine, citing “credible” information provided by allied nations, reported Radio Free Europe. 

The EU is reported to still be investigating the information, but EU spokesman Peter Stano said if Iran is discovered to have provided the escalatory arms to Moscow, the response would be “swift” and would include “new and significant restrictive measures against Iran.”

The Kremlin on Monday did not directly deny having been sent the missiles which are capable of carrying nuclear, chemical and conventional warheads.