Following President Donald Trumps decision to no longer abide by the Iran nuclear deal, the U.S. ambassador to Germany, Richard Grenell, has urged the German businesses to stop trading with the Islamic Republic of Iran. US sanctions will target critical sectors of Irans economy. German companies doing business in Iran should wind down operations immediately, Grenell tweeted on Tuesday.
Besides Iranian regime, European countries like Germany and France have been the biggest beneficiaries of the economic windfall generated from the 2015 nuclear deal. Carmakers Daimler and Peugeot have joined forces with Iranian partners to set up manufacturing plants in the country. Siemens landed a huge contract to upgrade Irans railway network. Aircraft maker Airbus, in which both Germany and France hold stakes, signed a $27 billion deal to supply airliners to Tehran.
As @realDonaldTrump said, US sanctions will target critical sectors of Irans economy. German companies doing business in Iran should wind down operations immediately.
According to the Hamburg-based weekly DerSpiegel, German companies urged the Merkel government to protect their business interests in the wake of the U.S. decision. Worried about Iran Trade, German Businesses Seek Government Support, the headline in DerSpiegel said.
The German business sector responded with shock to the U.S. President Donald Trumps announcement to pull out of the Iran deal.
The companies are worried that their trade with Iran could lead to loss of business in the United States. The Association of German Chambers of Industry and Commerce (DIHK) said. European firms face the threat of sanctionseventuallyif their Iranian business partners end up on the U.S. sanctions lists.
The U.S. sanctions will hit German firms even if the EU unilaterally abstains from imposing sanctions against Iran, according to the association. It is unclear if the U.S. will allow the old contracts to stand. The German government and the EU need to act now to protect Europes Iran trade and restore the lost confidence. demanded the DIHK. [Translation by author]
German Chancellor Angela Merkel has already declared her opposition to the U.S. Presidents move. We remain committed to the Iran deal, the German newspaper DieWelt reported, quoting Chancellor Merkel.
German Foreign Minister Heiko Mass assured that nuclear deal with the Islamic Republic was still in place. The agreement is not dead, Mass told the German broadcaster ARD. We will try to keep this important agreement alivean agreement that ensures security in the Near and the Middle East and thereby in the entire world.
Similar efforts are underway in France as well. We will obviously do everything, in conjunction with our businesses, to protect their interests, a French source told the Israeli newspaper Jerusalem Post.
Europeans want to save the nuclear agreement, wrote the German newspaper Die Welt. The newspaper highlighted the diplomatic efforts underway in Europe following the US withdrawal:
Foreign ministers from Germany, France and the UK are deliberating if and how they can salvage the Vienna agreement of 2015 [Iran deal] without the United States. Iran wants to stick to the deal for the meanwhile, but has made it conditional to the promised economical benefits. [Translation by author]
The German daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung was more belligerent in its reporting. Trumps Act of Destruction, read the headline of the editorial penned by the newspapers DC correspondent. The European companies, engaged in trading with Iran, will suffer the consequences, too, the editorial added.
As the media coverage and statements from Berlin indicate, Germanys political and business establishments are determined to salvage the Iran deal, or at least the lucrative financial gains made in Iran in the wake of the 2015 agreement.
If the U.S. sanctions were to snap back into place following President Trumps decision, German businesses could try to sabotage the measures. European corporations and banking sectors have a history of colluding with Iranian businesses. In 2014, Germanys Commerzbank was fined $1.45 billion by the U.S. authorities for violating the Iran sanctions. Following year, Frances Paribas paid $9 billion in legal settlements for committing similar violations.
With leading German and French companies entangled in Iranian trade, it is unlikely for Chancellor Merkel or President Macron to follow Americas example and abandon the deal anytime soon. Despite German Chancellor pledging her commitment and countrys Foreign Minister vowing to keep the agreement alive, President Trumps decisive action has killed the deal. The sooner the European political and business elite realize it, the better.
Video: Ambassador Grenell discusses Germany and the Iran deal [May 5, 2018]
Poster Comment:
Grenell didn't even unpack before he lowered the boom on German profiteering with Iran. Sounds like Bolton's idea to me.
For the past year, German officials have been urging their U.S. counterparts to send a new ambassador to Berlin. But after finally receiving one, many may be having second thoughts.
Within hours of assuming his new post Tuesday, Richard Grenell triggered harsh criticism in this Trump-weary country after appearing to threaten one of the U.S. presidents frequent targets: German businesses.
In a tweet after President Trumps announcement to leave the Iran nuclear deal, Grenell wrote that German companies doing business in Iran should wind down operations immediately. Germany, alongside France and Britain, wants to stick to the deal Trump is seeking to scrap. And while Grenells post may not deviate from the official White House stance on future European business dealings with Iran, the timing and tone struck some German politicians, journalists and business executives as offensive and inappropriate.
What sin did he commit?
As @realDonaldTrump said, US sanctions will target critical sectors of Irans economy. German companies doing business in Iran should wind down operations immediately.
The truth is that they are offended because they have invested billions in Iran since 2015 and those investments are in danger. The Europeans are making squealing noises about shielding their companies from secondary sanctions, but that is nonsense. Companies doing substantial business in Iran are eventually going to have to have access to international banking networks and secondary sanctions will hit their bankers as well as the companies directly involved. Grennel gave them some sage advice. Wind down your operations now because Treasury is going to have no mercy.
This is an overdue eye-opener for the Germans. Ever since Obama chose to use the Brandenburg Gate as a setting for a campaign speech, the Germans have become accustomed to the US jumping when they speak. Under Obama we were not a superpower, we were the geopolitical equivalent of the big, weak, fat kid who starts crying and hands over his lunch money when confronted by any threat. Under Trump, we are again learning to act like a great power. Grennel, I hope, is just the first of many ambassadors who care more about the United States than they do about the tightly wadded and soiled knickers of people whose opinions really arent the final word.
Awww...WaPo and our German allies are offended. Now I'm all shook up...
Apparently, the Germans wanted a new ambassador so they could communicate their dictates to That Idiot In The White House. And it didn't quite work out the way they had hoped.
You can bet that Trump loved this quick decisive action. Somewhere in the background, Mnuchin is smiling and waiting for his chance to sanction major German corporations...
Boeing and Airbus will lose contracts worth roughly $39 billion to replenish Iran's aging fleet of commercial planes as part of the Trump administration's reimposition of sanctions. "The Boeing and Airbus licenses will be revoked," Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin told a group of reporters ...
With Airbus losing a $19B sale to Iran, you can see why the Germans are unhappy. And if they defy us, Airbus will lose its ability to deal with all American banks and financial entities and would be out of business in a matter of weeks.
So this isn't just some threat that they might do something later. This is a very immediate threat that will force the cancellation of these aircraft orders now. Today. No matter what that traitorous scumbag John Kerry is whispering into the ears of the EU political elites.
"Lose"? I don't think so. "Postponed until Iran signs an acceptable nuclear agreement"? Sure.
I have no dispute with WaPo's choice of words.
I posted this because I think that most people thought Trump's pulling out of the Iran deal wouldn't mean all that much or the consequences would only happen years from now.
These are concrete real-world results, in a matter of days.
Trump, Mnuchin, Bolton, Grenell, they are doing exactly the things they intended to do. Takin' names and kickin' ass.
As for Germany, they aren't really even our allies any more. Their current NATO spending is about 1.15%. Barely half of their obligation to spend 2% of GDP on defense as a NATO member. And France does little better, Britain is worse. And, united, they failed to even knock off Ghaddafi, exhausting their missile supply and spare aircraft parts and then whining until 0bama came leading from behind to weaken Ghaddafi enough for some Muslim mob to murder him without a trial. These are our top allies?
If they don't want to be allies any more, as their actions would indicate, that's fine with me. Let's just drop the pretense altogether if that's what they want.
While what you say is true, I don't think it mattered. They could be fully paid up and Trump still would have pulled out of the Iran agreement.
What's really telling is how, time after time, Trump is exposing Obama for the incompetent fool that he was -- Obamacare, taxes, unemployment, federal regulation, the Paris Climate Accord, NAFTA, North Korea nukes, Iran agreement, NATO spending. Eight years of worse than nothing.
While what you say is true, I don't think it mattered. They could be fully paid up and Trump still would have pulled out of the Iran agreement.
Yeah but it is especially galling for a rich country like Germany to be a NATO deadbeat and miss no chances to lecture us about anything. They have plenty of money to spend on supporting their imported Muslim rapist migrants but can't possibly spend any more on their NATO treaty defense commitments.
I would still be annoyed with their furtive plotting with Lurch to undermine Trump's policy (Logan violation) but to get lectured by these nobodies when they won't even support NATO policy and treaty obligations really chafes my hide. Trump and Mattis also think this way and didn't bother to hold back when telling the EU elites exactly what they think of them as allies.
but to get lectured by these nobodies when they won't even support NATO policy and treaty obligations really chaffs my hide.
I agree completely. They've been pampered over the decades by various Presidents. What, to get them to like us? They need us more than we need them.
Now, if we would just apply the same principle to our useless "ally" in the Middle East, Israel. With all we do for them, the billions spent ... you'd think they'd throw us a bone and at least stop building homes in the West Bank when we asked them nicely.
I think their answer was a diplomatic, "Fuck you".
Now, if we would just apply the same principle to our useless "ally" in the Middle East, Israel. With all we do for them, the billions spent ... you'd think they'd throw us a bone and at least stop building homes in the West Bank when we asked them nicely.
You'd have a better point if the EU wasn't so rich. Israel spends plenty on its own defense. And it has been a lone outpost of democracy and human rights in the region for decades as fundamentalist Islam and sectarian strife have risen across the region.
But I do favor reducing Israel's aid package overall. It should probably be cut in half because Israel is a very rich little country; it's economy was one of the few that took no downturns back in 2009 and it's been going gangbusters economically. We should eliminate entirely any funding for the Palis. Let the Arabs support them if they choose to.
We have given a lot of economic incentives to Israel and the Palis to postpone or extend indefinitely any serious negotiations to resolve their differences. They both get more money out of us by maintaining their standoff.
For that matter, North and South Korea have played games with America and China for many years as well. There's no good reason for America or China to keep funding this war that has been going for 70 years. Make a treaty already.