Angela Merkel arrived in Israel for the third joint cabinet session with the Israeli government. Despite differences on Israeli communities built beyond the 1949 Armistice border, Merkel claimed that Germany and Israel have an understanding facilitated by common values.
While Merkel is regarded in Israel as a friend, the issue of Iran has sometimes soured Israeli German relations.
Benajamin Weinthal of the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, in an article that he co-authored with Giulio Meotti in the Wall Street Journal (Jan. 17) referred to the paradox of Germany, that while considered relatively pro-Israel within the European Union context has been doing a land office business with Iran. It was therefore important, they wrote, that Merkel threaten Iran with increased sanctions if it continues with the stonewalling policy that is displayed in P5+1 talks in Istanbul, where it claimed that its nuclear program is non-negotiable.
P5 means the five permanent members of the Security Council and the extra 1 is Germany. Germany's role began in 2003, when together with France and the United Kingdom, it formed the European 3 to negotiate with Iran. Some analysts argued then that the motivation was not only to establish a European position separate from the American one that enshrined a negotiated solution, but that it was also an outcome favored by Iran.
Iran, positioned between Russia-the Soviet Union and Western power, has sought good relations with Germany as a counterweight. In the Second World War, the Soviet Union and the Western Allies exercised military control over Iran for fear that it would side with the Axis and forced Reza Shah to abdicate. The Iranians, even under the Islamic Republic, still refer to the common Aryan background shared by the two peoples, but this is downplayed by the Germans.
Weinthal accuses Germany of playing a double game, because while it adheres presumably to the sanctions regime and may be prepared to up the ante, Germany is an enthusiastic trading partner in grey areas and areas not covered by the sanctions. The German Economic Ministry, headed by the Free Democrats in the coalition, is still conducting seminars to promote German Iranian trade.
According Weinthal, Germany has not shut down the European-Iranian trade bank which the US Treasury Department, that is quarterbacking the sanctions effort, calls a conduit for Iran's missile and nuclear programs. According to Weinthal and Meotti German imports from Iran grew by 28% in 2010 as opposed to 2009, while German exports rose by 5%. Strictly military exports are banned, but the major loophole is the dual-use equipment such as "replacement parts for rescue helicopters"
David Wroe writing in the Global Post claims that Germany is appreciated in Iran, although it occasionally raises human rights issues, because it is seen as pragmatic and has “never questioned the outcome of the [1979 Islamic] revolution or the nature of the regime.” For that reason, Germany is also useful for bringing China and Russia on board, because the latter two countries look askance at regime changes.
Because of her special position, Germany served as the mediator in Israel's deal with the Hezbollah and is now the go-between in negotiations with Hamas in an attempt to the the release of Gilad Shalit. This has not silenced critics, who claim that Germany has not been acting altruistically, but has profited as a middleman and has effectively broken ranks.
This is not a new charge. During the Clinton administration, the Americans fumed that the Germans had tipped off the Iranians about American bugging devices in their Bonn Embassy (Bonn was Germany's former capital before the decision was made to return to Berlin).
In 1995, Bill Clinton protested to Germany's Chancellor Helmut Kohl about the German decision to restructure Iran's $5 billion debt to Germany; he also questioned the sale of high-tech equipment to Iran that would be used for military purposes. Richard Perle, Undersecretary of Defense for the Reagan administration, summed up Germany's policy "the basic German policy has been to protect German industry."
Even as far back as the Reagan years, the United States and Germany clashed over the sale of dual-use technology, except that then it was sales to Saddam's Iraq and Khadaffi's Libya.