They told me that if I voted for McCain Europe wouldn't cooperate on Iran
They told me that if I voted for McCain Europe wouldn't cooperate with the US on Iran. And they were right. German Chancellor Angela Merkel remains unlikely to order the closure of the Hamburg-based Iranian bank (EIH), which has reportedly funneled over $1 billion into Iran’s military and ballistic weapons programs, despite reported pressure from President Barack Obama.What could go wrong?
A spokeswoman for Merkel wrote in an e-mail to the The Jerusalem Post this week that “in the concrete case of the EIH Bank, this is a financial institution under German law located in Hamburg. As such, the EIHB is subject to very strict controls on the part of the German bank monitoring authorities.”
Earlier this month, John Vinocur, senior correspondent and columnist of the International Herald Tribune, wrote of Germany’s “reluctance” and “hesitation to clamp down on a bank in Hamburg facilitating suspect European deals with Iran.”
This reluctance, he added, “resulted in a recent phone call, to no immediate avail,” from Obama to Merkel.
Merkel’s spokeswoman did not directly answer the Post’s query about why this reported presidential request had been rejected.
...
Saba Farzan, a leading German- Iranian expert, told the Post on Tuesday that “it is not sufficient to put this bank just under control – not nearly. The right measure at this time would be to ban this bank from doing business.
In Germany, both the public and policy-makers tend to forget what a strong impact the unilateral sanctions by the Bush administration in 2007 had. German banks started to step out of the Iran business after the pressure by US officials.”
She added, “Now imagine what an impact it would have if the German government imposed an effective unilateral tool by banning this precise bank from doing business in our country. Germany should have a great interest to stop Iran getting its hands on a nuclear bomb – for peace and stability in the Middle East and also for our own security. I do see Chancellor Merkel as committed in preventing this nightmare, but I would love to see all our politicians living up to their responsibility.”
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 7:11 PM
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