by WorldTribune Staff, June 22, 2018
German Chancellor Angela Merkel on June 21 said that, while European countries wanted to maintain the 2015 nuclear accord with Iran, the Islamic Republic’s ballistic missile program, its presence in Syria and its role in the war in Yemen need to be addressed.
Germany moved quickly and aggressively after the accord to exploit commercial opportunities in Iran that critics said benefited the rogue state’s development of strategic weapons.
“Iran’s aggressive tendencies must not only be discussed, but rather we need solutions urgently,” said Merkel after meeting Jordan’s King Abdullah in Amman where she announced 384 million euros ($445 million) of aid to Jordan this year.
U.S. President Donald Trump withdrew the United States from the nuclear deal last month, but the deal’s remaining signatories – Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany – want to preserve it.
Iran’s ballistic missile program and the deal’s failure to address it was one of the concerns cited by Trump in choosing to leave the deal.
Iran has several times test-fired ballistic missiles in recent months in what Western countries say are a violation of the UN resolution enshrining the 2015 nuclear deal.
In a June 21 column for the Washington Examiner, Tom Rogan noted that the German chancellor’s comments “are good words, except for the fact that Merkel’s government enables the hardliners aligned” with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
German corporations, Rogan wrote, “have provided the nuts and bolts, both figuratively and financially, of post-nuclear deal investments in Iran. Disinterested in who benefits from these deals on Iranian soil, Merkel has allowed German companies such as Siemens to throw money into Iranian economic sectors dominated by the IRGC. That money ends up in the IRGC’s global terrorist fundraising and operations network.”
Rogan continued: “Iranian intelligence officers continue to use Germany as a veritable shopping market for actuation and delivery systems related to ballistic missiles and weapons of mass destruction.”
In Europe, “there’s a common attitude that Iran, while sometimes problematic, is best dealt with by increasing commerce and respect for its foreign policy interests,” Rogan wrote. “The problem with this delusion is that it benefits the hardliners over the more-moderates in Teheran, disrupts Middle Eastern stability, and damages Western and Israeli security.”
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