India can no longer buy Iranian oil via Germany. Berlin decided Tuesday to put an end to a troubled business relationship that provoked the ire of Israel and the United States.
Until now, the Bundesbank and the Europäisch-Iranische Handelsbank (EIHB), based in Hamburg, served as intermediaries between New Delhi and Tehran, was revealed late last week the economic daily Handelsblatt. India, which purchases $ 9 billion per year of petroleum to Iran, contributed money to the German central bank, which instructed EIHB then buy the black gold to Iran.India thus avoiding offending his American ally, with the complicity of Berlin.
Washington was quick to react to these revelations. Earlier this week, the U.S. government complained about the transaction with the German government. Target of his displeasure: EIHB, a company owned 52% by an Iranian national bank. The hotel has since 2010 on the U.S. blacklist of companies suspected of helping Iran to circumvent international sanctions.Israel has applied the prohibition to the Germans.
Berlin was in a PREM time dithered, saying EIHB acted legally in Germany and was subject to strict control of financial authorities. Finally, the government caved in and ordered Tuesday to its central bank to close the valve.
It seems, moreover, that this business has three bands are the result of bargaining between the German government and Iran. Germany has in fact given the green light for this operation in early February, just days after the release of two German journalists detained in Iran.
"The quality rather than quantity"
The case could hardly have come at a worse time for Angela Merkel.She had already been criticized for its reluctance to participate in military operations against Libya. But this deal also calls into the importance of economic relations between Germany and Iran.
Germany is the leading European trade partner of Iran and second in the world behind the United Arab Emirates. Its exports reached $ 3.8 billion in 2010, an increase of almost 5% compared to 2009.Between January and October of 2010, imports from Iran rose by 28%.
"But more than the quantity of exports is the quality of products delivered that matters," said FRANCE 24 Alfaraj Sami, president of the Center for Strategic Studies in Kuwait, specialized in the Gulf region. Most German companies involved in Iran are specialized in high technology products.
The German giant Siemens had thus contributed to the computer system of Iranian nuclear facilities. The group announced in 2009 that he was withdrawing from Iran. In total, 200 German companies were active in Iran in July 2009, according to a list compiled by the Board of Trade between Germany and Iran.Business relationships can be very bad as the German political scientist Matthias Küntzel which analyzed last year. He wondered what kind of service a company like Babcock Borsig Service GmbH, which specializes "in nuclear technology," may well provide Tehran.
In 2008, the spokesman of the National Iranian Petrochimicals company had welcomed the ease that he had "to find from other countries than the U.S. products which [he] needed." He cited four names of companies, three are German.
