So
we'd better bomb Iran pronto! – from zionist propaganda newspaper Jerusalem Post.
Analysis:
German-Iranian trade booming
Myth
of impossibility of unilateral sanctions persists
4
November, 2012
Germany’s
exports to Iran have totaled over 25 billion euros since President
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad took office in 2005.
Last
week’s visit by three German deputies to Iran, which included a
meeting with the German-Iranian chamber of commerce, cast an
unfavorable light on Germany’s unbreakable trade relationship with
Tehran.
Flourishing
bilateral trade relations between Germany and the Islamic Republic
have been a source of frustration and anger at times for Israeli,
British, French, and US efforts to impose tough EU economic
sanctions.
While
Berlin has codified legislation to protect the religious freedom of
Jews and Muslims regarding circumcision within a rapid fire period of
time in 2012 – Bundestag lawmakers refuse to pass unilateral
economic sanctions modeled on US legislation to ratchet up the
pressure on Iran.
Dr.
Wahdat-Hagh, a leading German-Iranian expert on Iran’s economy and
regime, told The Jerusalem Post on Friday that Germany’s volume of
exports “stabilize the power of the totalitarian dictator in Iran.”
A
comprehensive statistical account of German-Iranian trade from the
Federal Republic’s office of statistics in Wiesbaden viewed by the
Post on Friday, covering 1950 to 2011, depicts a booming trade
relationship with Ahmadinejad’s government.
Dr.
Wahied Wahdat-Hagh, a Fellow at the European Foundation for Democracy
, analyzed the numbers and told the Post, that “the numbers are
better for Ahmadinejad than during the period of the Shah [Mohammad
Reza Shah Pahlavi, who ruled Iran from 1941 to 1979].”
In
1975, German exports had already totaled 2.64b. euros and in 1976
rose to 2.94b. euros.
The
two-year period of 1977-1978 was the zenith of German-Iranian trade
with the Shah.
Wahdat-Hagh
noted that in 1977 Germany had exported roughly 3.24b. euros worth of
goods to Iran and in 1978 about 3.46b. euros worth.
According
to the data, in 2005, the first year of Ahmadinejad’s presidency,
German exports to Iran amounted to 4.37b. euros. The second year,
2006, saw 4.15b.
In
2007, exports reached 3.6b. euros and in 2008 the volume of exports
climbed to 3.9b euros.
Both
2009 and 2010 saw exports hit 3.78b. euros each year.
By
2011, German exports resulted in 3.08b. euros worth of revenue for
German companies.
Wahdat-Hagh
said despite the sanctions – and a decrease over the years –
Germany’s exports were booming.
The
effort to prevent the criminalization of circumcision in Germany
indicates that the Bundestag can move forward with unilateral
sanctions on Iran and need not hide behind the curtain of the EU,
waiting for a common European approach.
German
officials and politicians frequently argue that they have to conform
their sanctions to EU stipulations. However, the telling example from
German’s Interior Ministry’s 2008 ban on the availability of the
Hezbollah television network Al-Manar in private hotels –
independent of EU sanctions – reveals that crippling German
sanctions are simply a matter of political will.
The
writer is a European affairs correspondent and fellow at the
Foundation for Defense of Democracies.
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