Wiesenthal Center Urges Chancellor Merkel to Block Germany/Iran Gas Liquefaction Deal

WIESENTHAL CENTER URGES CHANCELLOR MERKEL TO BLOCK GERMANY/IRAN GAS LIQUEFACTION DEAL:
Center says that the LNG deal would “make a mockery of international efforts to isolate the Tehran regime and its threats to Israel and the entire region”

The Simon Wiesenthal Center is urging German Chancellor Angela Merkel's intervention to block a 100 million euro deal between the German company Steiner (SPGSteiner-Prematechnik-Gastec GmbH) and the Iranian government where the German firm will construct three new gas liquefaction facilities in Southern Iran with a daily capacity of10,000 barrels.

According to the Associated Press, the German government’s Office of Economics and Export Control approved the deal, saying that it was made on legal not political grounds.

“It is an outrage that bureaucrats would be allowed to concoct a deal that thwarts the stated policies of the government of Germany,” said Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean ofthe Wiesenthal Center. “This deal, which rushes in to fill a business opportunity created by a French firm's backing off, helps Iran in this sensitive sector and makes a mockeryof the international community’s efforts to isolate a nuclearizing Iranian regime,” he added. “Further, in her recent historic address to Israel’s Knesset, Chancellor Merkeldeclared that Germany was a ‘loyal partner and friend’ of Israel, explicitly adding that threatening Israel’s right to exist is akin to threatening Germany’s.”

“But unless the Chancellor overrules the Export Control Office’s decision, Germany will strengthen Tehran and further embolden a regime whose president repeatedly calls for thedestruction of the Jewish State,” concluded Cooper.

The Simon Wiesenthal Center is one of the largest international Jewish human rights organizations with over 400,000 member families in the United States. It is an NGO atinternational agencies including the United Nations, UNESCO, the OSCE, and the Council of Europe.

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