Will Germany Continue to Prop up Iran's Financial Terror Entities? Angela Merkel has a choice

By Benjamin Weinthal
The European Union is slated this week to wrap up a new round of sanctions. Their goal is to force Iran to suspend its illicit nuclear program. After years of inaction, the European Union is now amenable to inflicting real economic pain on the Iranian regime where it is most vulnerable – particularly, to Iran’s financial and energy sectors. Disturbingly, Germany, the key EU economic force trading with Iran (roughly 4 billion euros annually), has thus far thrown a wrench into the works by blocking sanctions against Iranian banking institutions who are involved in financing its nuclear weapons program on German soil. In short, Germany is the key to effective EU sanctions against Iran's rulers.
The Wall Street Journal reported on Monday that the Hamburg-based Iranian EIH bank “has done over a billion dollars of business for Iranian companies associated with Iran's conventional military and ballistic missile procurement programs.” That should serve as a powerful wake up call for Germany to drop its resistance to shutting down the four Iranian banks operating in Germany. Statements from Germany's finance ministry and its bank regulatory agency BaFin suggest that the authorities are doing their best not to draw much undue attention to Germany's role in financing Iran's nuclear program and simply want to contain the damage.
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