German export control agency BAFA for months approved Iran deals despite warnings

The German Export Control Agency (BAFA) approved exports for the development of the South Pars gas field, a project of the sanctioned Iranian Revolutionary Guards. The agency ignored warnings about Iranian front companies. STOP THE BOMB publishes the correspondence with the export control agency and is calling for the dismissal of its president Dr. Arnold Wallraff.
The Wall Street Journal reported on December 17, 2011, that the German Hansa Group AG since June 2010 brokered exports for the Iranian energy sector worth 150 Million Euros. Iranian partner was the Iranian company PetroKish, established in April 2010, which assumed the contracts and personal of Sepanir, an Iranian Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) company sanctioned by the UN in June 2010. Thus, the deals and technology deliveries for the Iranian projects could continue seamlessly. [1] The deals with PetroKish have been approved by the Federal Office of Economics and Export Control (BAFA), but according to documents leaked to STOP THE BOMB by an informant, the BAFA had for over half a year clear signs for a German-Iranian deception maneuver in order to circumvent sanctions.
Already on May 26, 2011, the BAFA received an export application by the Minimax GmbH & Co. KG, which included documents with the logos of the sanctioned IRGC companies Sepanir and Khatam al-Anbia. On July 14, 2011, STOP THE BOMB spokesperson Jonathan Weckerle informed the BAFA about evidences that PetroKish was an IRGC front company. On August 8, 2011, STOP THE BOMB sent documents to the BAFA with clear evidence for the likely roles of Hansa Group AG as intermediary, of PetroKish as Iranian front company and of Sepanir and Khatam al-Anbia as Iranian business partners. The BAFA was, among other things, asked to check the documents and to hitherto stop all deals that involved the Hansa Group AG. The BAFA answered that the documents were “currently checked”, but, as the Wall Street Journal reports, continued to approve the exports. [2]
Until today, we know of no steps by the BAFA to legally binding stop the deliveries to PetroKish and to cancel the export permissions. The BAFA until now declines to comment on the case. The Wall Street Journal only mentioned a “request” by BAFA to the Hansa Group AG, asking for a stop of the deliveries to PetroKish, referring to informal deliberations about future Iran sanctions at the EU minister meeting on December 1, 2011.
STOP THE BOMB spokesperson Jonathan Weckerle comments: “Companies that greedily seek and use every opportunity to circumvent sanctions, officials that close both eyes despite clearest evidence for deception maneuvers and until today have failed to draw clear consequences – this is how Germany acts in face of the nuclear armament of the Islamist and anti-Semitic dictatorship in Iran. The German Sonderweg [special path] to block Western Iran sanctions is thus not only taken on the diplomatic scene, but also on the administrative level. Human rights in Iran, Israel’s security and the international anti-proliferation efforts are all subordinated to German export interests.” [3]
Hansa's trade with Iran known to STOP THE BOMB consists of deliveries for the development of the South Pars gasfield, the central project of the Iranian energy industry. The energy sector is of singular economic and political importance for the Iranian regime, and it is in great parts controlled and run by the sanctioned Revolutionary Guards. The energy sector is thus the focus of the international sanctions efforts. [4] As long as deliveries are not completely banned, they should have to undergo the sharpest controls by specialists. Jonathan Weckerle comments the policy of the BAFA as follows:
“The Federal Office of Export Control has for months approved export applications for well-known projects of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards and thereby subverted international sanctions. When documents and explicit evidences for dangerous and illegal deals with Iran are ignored, one can no longer speak of incompetence. It is the German government’s responsibility to finally stop the circumvention of international sanctions against Iran by imposing a complete embargo on exports for the energy sector and by establishing an effective control system. STOP THE BOMB calls for the dismissal of the responsible BAFA president Dr. Arnold Wallraff as well as investigations against the Hansa Group AG and its German business partners.”
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