Former US intel director slams Germany for lifting Iran arms embargo
German vote “effectively neutralizes the positive step Berlin had taken by revising its Hezbollah policy."
By BENJAMIN WEINTHALGrenell, US ambassador to Germany, attends the "Rally for Equal Rights at the United Nations (Protesting Anti-Israeli Bias)" in Geneva(photo credit: DENIS BALIBOUSE / REUTERS)
Former US acting director of intelligence Richard Grenell has authored a stinging indictment of Germany’s government for its failure to vote in favor of an extended weapons embargo against Iran’s regime, a deadly adversary of the United States, Israel and the West.Writing in his The Hill column last Thursday, Grenell, a former ambassador to Germany, said: “This was a particularly troubling decision by Germany, which recently took the bold step of circumventing EU policy by designating the entirety of Hezbollah as a terrorist organization. Germany also regularly reaffirms its special commitment to the security of Israel, the country most threatened by Iranian arms.”“Germany’s decision not to prevent Iran from importing Chinese and Russian weapons systems is so consequential for Hezbollah’s resourcing capacities that it effectively neutralizes the positive step Berlin had taken by revising its Hezbollah policy,” he wrote.Germany banned all Hezbollah activities within its borders in April. Grenell said the reason for Germany’s vote, along with France and the United Kingdom, to abstain last week at the United Nations Security Council was due to its goal to preserve the controversial 2015 Iran nuclear deal, formerly known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).The US withdrew from the JCPOA in 2018 because the unsigned agreement did not advance American national security interests to stop Iranian terrorism and its nuclear-weapons ambitions, according to the Trump administration.Grenell’s commentary in The Hill is titled: Why would our allies allow an enemy like Iran to rearm?Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government has provided diplomatic and economic support for Iran over the years. Germany’s Foreign Ministry routinely celebrates Iran’s Islamic revolution at Tehran’s embassy in Berlin.German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier congratulated Iran’s regime in the name of the German people in 2019 in connection with the Islamic revolution. Merkel’s administration also sends government officials to economic workshops to circumvent US financial sanctions against the mullah regime.Israel supports the extension of the UN arms embargo against Iran. The security of the Jewish state is “non-negotiable” for her government, Merkel told the Knesset in 2008.
