Israel Matzav

Good luck with that

Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman is trying to convince Austria to stop trading with Iran.

Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, met Wednesday afternoon in Vienna with Austrian Foreign Minister Michael Spindelegger. During the meeting the two ministers discussed Iran and Minister Lieberman raised the issue of Austrian trade with the Iranian regime.

In 2007, Austrian oil company OMV signed a 22 billion Euro agreement to produce liquefied natural gas from Iran's South Pars gas field. Meanwhile Austria's third-largest bank, Raiffeisen Zentralbank, remains active in Iran and has absorbed the transactions of other major European banks that have shut down their operations.

This was the reaction in May 2008 when OMV's directors were asked about the moral and financial propriety of the Iran deal at a company shareholders' meeting.

OMV sees time as an ally and is waiting for "political change in the USA," Ruttenstorfer said in response to questions about sanctions against Iran at the stockholder meeting. [Think they're expecting Barack Hussein Obama to be the next President of the United States? CiJ]

He declined to comment on whether OMV's gas deal would violate the US Iran Sanctions Act, which prohibits large energy investments in Iran and spells out penalties for conducting more than $20 million of annual business in Iran's energy sector.

OMV spokesman Thomas Huemer told the The Jerusalem Post that "OMV as a company does not have a moral responsibility toward a particular state."

Bugajer told thePost that Ruttenstorfer' responses were "not really answers."

I don't see much possibility of Lieberman getting them to change their attitude.

What could go wrong?

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 2:15 AM