Israel Matzav

Of course: Europe fails to enforce its own sanctions against Iran

Yet another reminder that sanctions will never stop Iran's nuclear program... because Europe won't enforce them.

Continental Europe's zig-zag course with sanctioned Iranian officials remains a counterproductive leftover vestige to the EU's nearly 30 year failed policy of dialogue with Tehran's clerical rulers. Take the example of Irans foreign minister, Ali Akbar Salehi, who on December 4 appeared in Bonn to attend the Afghanistan conference. Though Salehi is sanctioned by the EU because of his work on Iran's illicit nuclear weapons program, he met with Germany's Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle [pictured above. CiJ] and schmoozed with the conference attendees. The EU has waived its own visa restrictions against Salehi.

Attention to a second case this week raises again the point of impotent EU diplomatic sanctions. Iranian oil minister Rostam Ghasemi swooped into Vienna on Tuesday to attend the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) meeting on Wednesday. Ghasemi commands Iran's revolutionary guards' Khatam al-Anbia military. The EU, Australia and the United States have sanctioned Ghasemi. His tentacles are immersed in blacklisted revolutionary guard companies. Iran's Revolutionary Guards Corps is defined as a global terrorist organization by the US government. Yet his presence at the Vienna parley makes a mockery of Iran-based sanctions. Diplomatic business as usual is precisely what Tehran seeks. And the EU, sadly, is reciprocating.

The irony is that the Europeans probably have a greater interest than anyone outside of Israel in stopping Iran. Their economies are already teetering on the brink - a sharp rise in the price of oil resulting from a war could tank Europe's economies for a generation. And yet, the Europeans continue to throw a stick in the spokes of the one thing that might have a chance of averting war. They seem to have a death wish, provided of course that they can take as many Jews as possible with them (God forbid).

What could go wrong?

Labels: European hypocrisy, Iran sanctions regime

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 4:21 AM