NCRI – The German government is increasing pressure on companies to curb business with Iranian regime and even tried to stop a business conference attended by the Iranian regime’s oil minister, Handelsblatt daily said on Thursday.
Last week, the government of Chancellor Angela Merkel urged the German Near and Middle East Association NUMOV in a letter to cancel two conferences on Iran, Handelsblatt said.
NCRI – The German government is increasing pressure on companies to curb business with Iranian regime and even tried to stop a business conference attended by the Iranian regime’s oil minister, Handelsblatt daily said on Thursday.
Last week, the government of Chancellor Angela Merkel urged the German Near and Middle East Association NUMOV in a letter to cancel two conferences on Iran, Handelsblatt said.
"These events clearly contradict the government's policies and could cause bigger foreign policy damage to Germany," the daily quoted the letter by the Ministry of Economics as saying.
"For this reason, I would like to ask you not to go ahead with these events in the name of the Ministry of Economics and the Chancellor's Office," the letter said.
The two conferences, an information event on Iran for German companies in western Duesseldorf, and a meeting by German company representatives with Iran regime's Oil Minister Gholamhossein Nozari in Berlin, went ahead nevertheless, the paper said.
Germany has traditionally been one of Iran's biggest trading partners. Recent figures show Berlin has significantly cut the value of new credit guarantees it offers firms that do business with Iran, but German Exports to that country grew in 2008, according to official statistics.
The pressure is bearing fruit, Handelsblatt said, with trade between Germany and Iran falling 30 percent in January compared with a year earlier, although trade with other countries is growing.
Graph: German exports to Iran in billions of Euros
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The report is based on wire news dispatches
