Germany Defends Gas Equipment Deal with Iran Against Israeli Criticism

TEHRAN (FNA)-

August 2, 2008

Germany rejected Thursday criticism from Israel over a deal to export gas-liquefaction equipment to Iran.

Officials in Berlin said Steiner Prematechnik Gastec had won export clearance at the end of February for the deal, reportedly worth 100 million euros (160 million dollars).

The three systems are to cool and compress natural gas into liquid form so it can be transported by ship to export customers.

A spokesman for the Economics Ministry in Berlin said petrochemical plant was not restricted by UN trade sanctions imposed on Iran on account of its nuclear-research program. He said Steiner had obtained the permit properly.

The Israeli Foreign Ministry voiced exasperation Thursday at the permit, saying it breached the 'spirit' of the UN sanctions.

This week the Simon Wiesenthal Centre appealed to Berlin to prohibit the deal. Jewish groups have criticized the contract, charging that Germany is fostering economic relations with Iran despite that nation's nuclear program and its threats toward Israel.
The Berlin spokesman said the permit was issued by the federal export controls agency BAFA after careful study established that the plant had no military applications.

"At that point there was no legal grounds to forbid the export," he said.

Steiner, based in the western city of Siegen, has been hired to build the three plants on the southern Iranian coast.

Liquefied natural gas (LNG) is transported by ocean when there are no pipelines to transport gas at ambient temperature. The European Union had encouraged the LNG trade to reduce Europe's dependence on piped Russian natural gas.

Israel, the sole owner of nuclear weapons in the Middle-East, and its staunch ally the United States accuse Iran of seeking a nuclear weapon, while they have never presented any corroborative document to substantiate their allegations. Both Washington and Tel Aviv possess advanced weapons of mass destruction, including nuclear warheads.

Iran vehemently denies the charges, insisting that its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes only. Tehran stresses that the country has always pursued a civilian path to provide power to the growing number of Iranian population, whose fossil fuel would eventually run dry.

Iran has also insisted that it would continue enriching uranium because it needs to provide fuel to a 300-megawatt light-water reactor it is building in the southwestern town of Darkhoveyn as well as its first nuclear power plant in the southern port city of Bushehr.

Tel Aviv and Washington have recently intensified their threats to launch military action against Iran to make Tehran drop what they allege to be a non-peaceful nuclear program, while a recent report by 16 US intelligence bodies endorsed the civilian nature of Iran's nuclear plans and activities.

Following the US National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) and similar reports by the IAEA head - one in November and the other one in February - which praised Iran's truthfulness about key aspects of its past nuclear activities and announced settlement of outstanding issues with Tehran, any effort to impose further sanctions or launch military attack on Iran seems to be completely irrational.

The February report by the UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, praised Iran's cooperation in clearing up all of the past questions over its nuclear program, vindicating Iran's nuclear program and leaving no justification for any new UN sanctions.

The UN nuclear watchdog has so far carried out at least 14 surprise inspections of Iran's nuclear sites, but found nothing to support the allegations.

Following the said reports by the US and international bodies, many world states have called the UN Security Council pressure against Tehran unjustified, demanding that Iran's case be normalized and returned from the UNSC to the IAEA.

Fair Use Notice

This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.