Berlin wouldn't give Syria, Iran trucks

By BENJAMIN WEINTHAL, JERUSALEM POST CORRESPONDENT IN BERLIN
BERLIN - German Chancellor Angela Merkel's administration imposed a ban on the sale of heavy trucks to Iran and Syria in April 2008 because of Israeli intelligence concerns, according to a report in last week's Der Spiegel magazine. Vehicles "with three or more axles" and a total "weight of more than 20,000 kilograms" can be used to fire Iranian missiles.
Israeli government officials asked representatives of the federal republic last year what their reaction would be if it was ever learned that Teheran had fired missiles at Israel from German trucks. "The expansion of the embargo to include Daimler's semi trucks is also the work of the Israelis. About a year-and-a-half ago, officials from the Mossad told authorities in Berlin about a three-axle special truck that the Syrian government had ordered for its military," according to the Spiegel article. Responding to Israel security concerns, the Merkel administration blocked the delivery of the Daimler trucks. Yet the Daimler Benz top lobbyist, Martin Jäger, a former spokesman for Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, is attempting to compel the Merkel administration to reverse its restrictions on Daimler.
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