Germany's Iranian secret

[Ulli]

By Benjamin Weinthal

Germany's role in the crisis caused by Iran's nuclear program typifies a kind of split national personality. On the one hand, already in early 2006 Chancellor Angela Merkel, of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), drew a diplomatic line in the sand when she declared, "A president who questions Israel's right to exist, a president who denies the Holocaust, cannot expect to receive any tolerance from Germany." The fact that Ahmadinejad openly entertains the notion of exterminating Israel prompted Merkel to add, "We must take the Iranian president's rhetoric seriously."

But Merkel's tough political rhetoric stands in sharp contrast to the pricey business deals German firms have closed with the Tehran regime, to the tune of $5.7 billion in 2006. That makes Germany Iran's most important trading partner in the European Union.

A total of 5,000 German enterprises conduct business with Iran, and the list reads like a "Who's Who" of blue-chip corporations, including Mercedes-Benz, Volkswagen, Krupp and Hermes, the debt guarantee entity for exports. The extent of the Iranian economy's dependency on German know-how was summed up by Michael Tockuss, the former president of the German-Iranian Chamber of Commerce in Tehran: "Some two thirds of Iranian industry relies on German engineering products."
   Advertisement
The government's tolerant attitude toward the private-public sector business relationship with Iran was best captured in a late September conference - an initiative of Germany's Economics Ministry - intended to promote expanded trade with Iran. During a follow-up to this conference in early October, the German Chambers of Industry and Commerce (IHK) advised companies about "market entry and opportunities of expansion" in Iran. But this splendid business partnership may very well be Germany's best-kept secret. According to the German business paper Handelsblatt, "German companies are trying ... not to publicize their contracts with Tehran." For that reason, the power of Iran in Germany is the scandal that dares not speak its name.

How does one explain the disconnect between Merkel's tough political rhetoric and her government's inability to clamp down on the mushrooming business deals, many of which involve the sale of dual-use technology (that is, for both civilian and military purposes)?

Petra Hitzler, who oversees trade relations with Iran in the Economics Ministry, said she cannot comment on dual-use technology because "it is not possible to inspect the business transactions of private companies." A spokesperson from the Federal Office of Economics and Export Control - the agency charged with scrutinizing business with Iran - told me that privacy laws prevent her from publicly naming German firms that have received special permission to supply material for civilian-use nuclear reactors in Iran. More disturbingly, she added, "we cannot control how the material is utilized in Iran."

Here you can read the full article:
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/912104.html