Israel Matzav

EU and Germany may impose sanctions against Iran

The European Union and Germany may impose stronger sanctions against Iran - including cutting off Iran's supply of refined oil products - unless the Iranians show a willingness to compromise over their nuclear facilities. And while the Europeans are willing to try to take it to the UN Security Council, it doesn't sound like a Russian or Chinese veto threat will stop them.

SPIEGEL has learned that Germany and the EU are considering stopping all exports of gasoline to Iran, which according to analysts' estimates depends on imports to cover 30 percent of its gasoline supplies, even though it exports crude oil.

Diplomats are also considering imposing further restrictions on shipping and air traffic to and from Iran, for example by banning Iranian ships or aircraft from docking or landing in the EU.

Major insurance companies that insure many freight shipments to and from Iran, such as Lloyd's, may be foreced to cease such deals.

The German government will initially try to get these additional sanctions passed by the UN Security Council, where veto powers China and Russia have been hesitant on measures against Iran. But senior German diplomats have said the EU and the US would be prepared to impose "very strict sanctions" on their own.

At Foreign Policy's The Cable, Laura Rozen reports that Iran is ready to come to the table:

Iran's ambassador to the UN nuclear watchdog agency in Vienna has said Iran is ready to talk with Western powers about its nuclear program without preconditions and based on mutual respect, according to wire reports citing the official's appearance on Iranian state television Tuesday.

"Talks without preconditions is Iran's main stance in negotiations on the nuclear issue," Iran's ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency Ali Asghar Soltanieh said on Iranian state television, according to Reuters. "Soltanieh announced Iran's readiness to take part in any negotiations with the West based on mutual respect," state television reportedly further said.

Senior Obama administration officials have recently telegraphed that Iran has roughly until the United Nations General Assembly opening in mid-September to positively respond to the Western offer for talks on its nuclear program, or face stepped up international sanctions and other pressure. "The president has been quite clear that this is not an open ended offer to engage," Defense Secretary Robert Gates said in a news conference in Israel last month. "We're very mindful of the possibility that the Iranians would simply try to run out the clock. I think that the president is certainly anticipating or hoping for some kind of a response this fall, perhaps, by the time of the U.N. General Assembly."

The administration did not immediately respond to queries about its reaction to the reports on the Iranian ambassador's televised offer to participate in the dialogue on Tehran's nuclear program.

Iran experts have described Soltaniah as a technocrat who is certainly being ordered to make today's statement by political leadership in Tehran.

Iran's statement is designed to deflect some of the pressure that the European announcement (which took place on Monday) undoubtedly placed on them. Will Iran really come to the table and negotiate? Given that Rozen goes on to report that Soltanieh is a relatively low-level functionary in Iran's nuclear bureaucracy and that he mentioned the word 'respect' several times (Arab-Muslim code for 'give us what we want or else'), I don't really expect Iran to give up anything - they're just trying to forestall sanctions and possible military action.

I'm glad to see that someone may actually do something that could slow down Iran's race to nuclear weapons. On the other hand, I can't help but notice that it's the Europeans taking the lead and not the United States. Change?

Read the whole thing.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 8:29 PM