![\"Germany's](\"https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2019\/03\/Germanys_Failure_to_Defy_US_Sanctions.jpg\" "\\"Germanys_Failure_to_Defy_US_Sanctions\\"")
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By\u00a0Shahriar Kia<\/p>\n
According to a recent report from Die Zeit (March 28, 2019), Germany\u2019s efforts towards maintaining its business ties with Iran amid the US sanctions, hasn\u2019t been as successful as it had hoped for.<\/p>\n
Despite the US withdrawal from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, Britain, France and Germany, vowed to maintain their agreements with Iran thereafter. Case in point Germany\u2019s foreign minister, insisted that he would do all it takes to protect German companies linked with Iran, against relevant US sanctions; moreover, the Federal Minister for Economic Affairs (ie Peter Altmaier) also emphasised on his disagreement with Washington \u201cdictating\u201d Berlin\u2019s relationship with the rest of the world.<\/p>\n
On 31st January this year, the three mentioned countries even signed an official agreement on INSTEX (\u201cInstrument for Supporting Trade Exchanges\u201d), aiming to facilitate the legitimate trades between European economic operators and Iran, which according to Ulrich Nu\u00dfbaum (Germany\u2019s State Secretary for Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs) hasn\u2019t made much difference just yet due to being in its \u201cearly days of activation\u201d.<\/p>\n
INTEX in action<\/strong><\/p>\n Despite the German government persuading its\u2019 private banks to continue working with Iran, a continuous decline of trade exchange is observed in the relevant statistics.<\/p>\n According to Nu\u00dfbaum, the trade exchange between Germany and Iran plummeted by 9% last year alone; from 3.15 billion euro in 2017, to 2.7 billion euro in 2018.<\/p>\n An Iranian member of German\u2019s Green Party comments in this regard: \u201cit\u2019s been nearly 1 year since US exited JCPOA and there\u2019s still no effective mechanisms in place for maintaining the agreement with Iran\u201d; which is reflected in the activities of the Federal government as well. For instance, Telekom (3.2% of which is owned by the Federal government) has already ended 10 of its projects with Iran, which clearly reveals their growing fear from US sanctions.<\/p>\n Dollar Ban<\/strong><\/p>\n One of the greatest barriers in Germany\u2019s link with Iran is the dollar bank in majority of international trades, including those with Iran.<\/p>\n Despite the current inactivity of INSTEX and the general lack of hope in its effectiveness, US government has already voiced its strong opposition of the mechanism, warning Europe to avoid circumventing its sanctions.<\/p>\n The current US Ambassador to Germany (ie Richard Gernell) in specific, recently referred to INSTEX as \u201cnot recommendable\u201d circumvention, criticizing the \u201cindifference\u201d of the countries involved to US approach towards Iran (Frankfurter Allgemeine newspaper).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Shahriar Kia According to a recent report from Die Zeit (March 28, 2019), Germany’s efforts towards maintaining its business ties with Iran amid the US sanctions, hasn’t been as successful […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":52941,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[178],"class_list":{"0":"post-26017","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-economy","8":"tag-save"},"yoast_head":"\n