Germany - Iran

As Germany continues to express its firm commitment to economic sanctions on Iran, major trading bodies within the country have been openly violating them.

A business conference held in Hamburg last week discussed possible ways to circumvent the sanctions and instead increase trading ties with Tehran.(...)

Israel's ire over the conference only increased after it was revealed that the conference's main sponsor had been none other than Iran's Melli Bank. The Iranian bank is suspected of funding terror and of financing the Iranian nuclear project. The Unites States and EU have consequently imposed sanctions on the bank, freezing many of its assets.

Israel has since protested to German authorities, requesting that the conference be cancelled despite it being a private event. Israel's ambassador to Berlin has even called for the intervention of German Chancellor Angela Merkel. The German response was ambiguous. At first the German officials stated there was not enough time to cancel the event. A later response said the private nature of the event rendered it outside the realm of government responsibility.(...)

The Hamburg conference is the latest in a recent series of events that have raised Israel's ire over Germany's conduct on the Iranian issue. In September 2007 Germany sponsored a conference calling for increased trading ties with Tehran; in June Haaretz revealed an 18-percent rise in trade between the two countries over the first quarter of 2008, while over the same month a German gas company forged a deal with Iran worth 100 million euros. Another awkward incident took place two months ago, when Germany's military envoy to Tehran participated in a parade in which missiles were exhibited bearing the slogan: "Wiping Israel off the map."

(Barak Ravid, Haaretz Correspondent www.haaretz.com 01/12/2008)