Germanys relationship with Iran under fire as weak link against regime

Germanys relationship with Iran under fire as weak link against regime

Germanys longstanding efforts to conduct business with the Islamic Republic of Iran include a robust trade relationship at a time when the regime hasreportedly killedat least 700 protestersand arrested as many as 19,000.

Berlin is facing intense criticism for placating Tehran. The protests across Iran in response to the murder of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini have pushed Germanys so-called feminist foreign policy into the spotlight. The regimes notorious morality police allegedly tortured Amini to death for failing to properly wear her mandatory hijab.

Germany has consistently been the Islamic Republics most important trade partner. According to recently published statistics from the Federal Statistical Office of Germany, Germany exported more than $1.2 billion in merchandise to Iran from January to October 2022. Germany imported more than $277 million in goods from Iran.

The Federal Republic exported $293 million in machines and engineering technology to Iran in 2022. The German-Iranian Chamber of Industry and Commerce announced on its website that Germany is still Irans largest trade partner in Europe.

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A huge mural of Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, Irans supreme leader, painted next to a smaller one of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini on Motahari Street on March 8, 2020, in Tehran, Iran.

In December, Berlin declared it was suspending state incentives to promote trade with Iran due to the repression of demonstrators. The suspension involves export credits and investment insurance guarantees to German companies. Germanys trade volume with Iran totaled $1.87 billion in 2021.

Germanys porous export regulations have permitted dual-use technology to be sold to Iran over the years. In 2018, Fox News Digital reported that Germany sold material to Iranian businesses that was used inchemical missile attacks in Syria. The rockets poisoned dozens of civilians, including children.

Berlin has declined to stop German and Iranian banks from processing payments to companies involved in bilateral trade. The Iranian-ownedbank European-Iranian Trade Bank(EIH) located in Hamburg and German banks (Volksbank Konstanz and Volksbank Schwarzwald-Donau-Neckar) situated in the southwestern German state of Baden-Wrttemberg have reportedly provided transactions for sensitive business deals. Fox News Digital sent a press query to the U.S. Treasury Department regarding German banks processing payments for Irans regime.

The U.S. Treasury Department previously accused the European-Iranian Trade Bank of playing an illegal role in Irans nuclear and missile programs following the intervention of the former U.S. Ambassador to Germany Richard Grenell, who stopped Germany in 2018 from processing a$400 million payment via EIHto Irans regime.

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Germany, an American ally, has a propensity to overlook the threat from the radical regime in Iran, Grenell told Fox News Digital. German leaders regularly believe the threat to them and Europe isnt a serious concern, but time and time again its because German political officials arent speaking to German intelligence officials enough to see the threat.

American pressure on the German government to pay attention to these threats is crucial, and it starts with the U.S. ambassador demanding action.

Grenell, who also served as the acting director of national intelligence (DNI) during the Trump administration, compelled a reluctant Germany to sanction Irans alleged terrorist airline Mahan Air. Mahan Air is the main airline used by Tehran to transport weapons into Syria and Lebanon. TheU.S. Treasury Department sanctionedMahan Air for its role in the Syrian regimes atrocitiesand under a counter proliferation authority that targets weapons of mass destruction proliferators and their supporters.

Irans regime sanctioned Grenell for his efforts to improve human rights in Iran and end the executions of gays and lesbians in the Islamic Republic. He also played a decisive role in forcing Berlin, after decades of fierce resistance, to in 2020 ban all the activities of the Lebanese terrorist movement Hezbollah in Germany. Hezbollah is the Iranian regimes chief strategic partner.

In 1983, Hezbollah bombed the U.S. military barracks in Beirut, Lebanon, killing 243 Marines and 58 French paratroopers. In 2007, Hezbollah operative Ali Musa Daqduq was instrumental in the murder of five American soldiers in Karbala, Iraq.

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A U.S. State Department spokesperson told Fox News Digital that Germany is an invaluable partner, critical to the vibrancy of the Trans-Atlantic partnership. We continue to deepen our relationship with Germany and to tackle together tough international issues, including Iran, Russias war against Ukraine, the global economy, security, protecting human rights and fostering democracy.

Germany has been an energetic supporter of the Iran nuclear deal that would lift economic sanctions on Irans regime in exchange for promises of temporary restrictions on Tehrans atomic program.

Berlin would reportedly stand to reap an economic windfall totaling billions of dollars in trade if the tough sanctions are lifted. German intelligence agencies have over the years documented Tehransillicit efforts to obtain materialfor its nuclear program.

Late last year, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said in a weekly video message that Germany stood shoulder to shoulder with the Iranian people, and praised the bravery of the protesters, Those who demonstrate against oppression in Iran risk their lives and often also the lives of their loved ones and face the prospect of torture and decades in prison, he said.

Fox News Digitals press queries sent to German chancellors spokesman Steffen Hebestreit were not immediately returned.

If we want to be diplomatic, then lets just say Germany is a weak link, Michael Rubin, a senior fellow and Iran expert at the American Enterprise Institute, told Fox News Digital. Thirty years ago, its foreign minister formulated Europes outreach to Iran, and Germanys diplomats and business community have never since been able to admit failure. From Tehrans standpoint, the Germans are consistent useful idiots willing to believe in the sincerity or possibility of any initiative Iranian diplomats propose.

Germany could exert far greater pressure on the regime, he said.

Irans Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) controls perhaps 40% of the Iranian economy. A greater share of the IRGC budget comes from these companies than from parliament. This is why its so important to sanction the entirety of the IRGC, Rubin said.

The U.S. has sanctioned the IRGC, and the State Department has routinely classified Iran as the worlds worst state sponsor of terrorism. Now, the United Kingdom is reportedly preparing to sanction the IRGC. According to the Telegraph, the IRGC was behind 10 plots to kidnap and murder people in Britain in 2022.

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In December, German state security forces accused the IRGC of sponsoring terrorism against synagogues in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia and spying on the president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany.

Were talking about state terrorism here, a state investigator told German TV station ARDs political magazine Kontraste.

The IRGC and Iranian nationals have reportedly launched terror plots and attacked synagogues in Germany. On Saturday, German police arrested two Iranian nationals for anIslamist-motivatedattackto spread the chemical weapons cyanide and ricin.

The spokesman for the German Foreign Ministry, Christofer Burger, declined to answer a series of detailed Fox News Digital questions about German-Iran relations and whether Germany will sanction the IRGC. However, Germanys Foreign Minister, Annalena Baerbock,wrote on Twittershortly after Fox News Digital sent press queries that Listing the Revolutionary Guards as terrorist organizations is politically important and makes sense. She is seeking that the EU list the IRGC as a terror organization.

Brig. Gen. (res.)Yossi Kuperwasser,a seniorresearcherat Israel Defense and Security Forum (IDSF) andaformer head of the research division at the Israel Defense Forces, also told Fox News Digital that Berlin is a weak component in the effort to pressure Irans regime to change its behavior.

Germany is alwayslooking for the opportunityto do business with Iran. It is difficult to convince them not to do it. Everyoneunderstands Iran is suppressingthe will of Iranian protesters who want freedom, Iran is helping Russia [in its war against Ukraine] and that Iran refuses to cooperate with the International Atomic Energy Agency. None of that matters to Germany, he said.

The flag of Iran in front of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) headquarters ahead of a press conference by Rafael Grossi, director general of the IAEA, about the agencys monitoring of Irans nuclear energy program May 24, 2021, in Vienna, Austria.

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The Iranian people are bravely demonstrating for freedom, Saba Farzan, a German-Iranian dissident who is chairwoman of the Free Democratic Partys (FDP) Gendarmenmarkt chapter in the heart of Berlin, told Fox News Digital.

Changes in German-Iran policy have already happened, but not significantly enough. The IRGC must be classified as a terror organization because it is one. A diplomatic boycott of the regime must happen as well as an end to all kinds of city partnerships because they only benefit the corrupt regime and absolutely not Irans civil society.

Moritz Kraemer, the chief economist for the partially state-ownedLandesbank Baden-WrttembergLBBW in the state of Baden-Wrttemberg, announced last May regarding Germany that intensive talks are already being held behind the scenes with Venezuela, Iran or Algeria to cover Germanys oil and gasoline needs.

However, Germanys foreign ministry told Fox News Digital, The fact is that there are no talks or plans to buy oil or gas from Iran.

Sheina Vojoudi, an Iranian dissident who fled to Germany, told Fox News Digital, Not only Germany, but any democracy must cut its diplomatic ties with the Islamic Republic. For years, the Iranian dissidents have been urging Germany to take effective action against the Islamic Republic, which kills its own people, as German Chancellor Olaf Scholz mentioned in his speech.

Vojoudi, a spokesperson for the Senate of the National Iranian Congress, said it is the responsibility of the international society to step in and stop this regime. Its time to activate the R2P [Responsibility to Protect]. This [week], the Islamic Republicexecuted two other Iranian youths,Mohammad Hosseini and Mohammad Mehdi Karami, because they protested against the regime. Would Germany do the same to its people if they protested?

Many times weve asked Germany to expel the Islamic Republics diplomats and to recall its diplomats from Iran, and I would ask it again.

Fox News Digital sent press queries to Irans foreign ministry and U.N. Mission.

THE Associated Presscontributed to this report.

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