German early bird Sigmar Gabriel catching worms in Tehran.
In business, the early bird really does catch the worm and, mindful of that, European firms are rushing with headlong alacrity to do deals with Iran – even though pro-forma the sanctions against the ayatollah regime hadn’t yet been lifted.
Speediest and most impatient of all are the Germans, who cannot contain their zeal to profit. They dispatched a high-level 60-member delegation topped by Angela Merkel’s second-in-command along with representatives from such industrial giants as Linde, Siemens, Mercedes-Daimler, Volkswagen, et al.
To be sure, while the Germans are keenest to rake in the benefits of dealing with the genocidal enemies of the Jewish state, they have special incentives to appear righteous.
And so Vice Chancellor and Economy Minister Sigmar Gabriel, advised the Iranians to “improve their relations with Israel,” recognize it, etc. Gabriel solicitously offered Germany’s unsolicited mediation services. To be sure, had he even loudly shouted his moralistic message in Farsi – in the center of Tehran – it’s doubtful the ayatollahs could repress their derisive laughter.
However, this lip service was paid only in an interview to the German paper Bild, making it little more than inconsequential.
Germany, of course, isn’t alone. It’s just quicker and more shamelessly raring to go than its neighbors. Europe’s eagerness for commercial transactions with Iran might well lend the impression to the uninitiated that all sanctions were already dropped, that Iran had fully demonstrated that it was upholding its end of the bargain, that it was fully rehabilitated, that it had quit the terror racket, abandoned its nuclear ambitions and that the ayatollahs enlisted in a pacifist sect.
It’s as if reentering Iran is an irresistible money-making magnet for a whole gamut of voracious concerns – from banks and financial conglomerates to the oil and gas sector and even carmakers and assorted manufacturers.
Planeloads of gung-ho executives are due in Tehran from numerous European firms for “exploratory” talks, while the ink on the Vienna deal has hardly dried. French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius and Italian Economic Development Minister Federica Guidi plan to visit Iran soon too. Also hot on the German heels are the British, Dutch, Swiss, Spanish and others. Simultaneously, on Europe’s east loom the Russians and from Asia come equally enthusiastic Chinese and South Korean overtures toward Tehran.
The entire phenomenon is both mind-boggling and disheartening, to say the least.
It pays to recall that while Europeans and Asians fall over themselves to restore chumminess with Iran – its terror-mongering and nuclear machinations notwithstanding – the international community is awash with amplified boycott threats against democratic Israel.
The tone for the surge of interest in the Iranian economy is set in Washington, which once spearheaded sanctions on Iran but has now changed tack.
Ironically American corporations are hobbled by Washington’s own bureaucratic regulations which impede their ability to more rapidly gain from resurrecting trade with an economy that comprises the world’s fourth-largest oil reserves and its second-largest natural gas reserves.
Equally ironic is the fact that some of those who now most acutely cannot resist the Iranian lure, cynically never really ceased their operations there in full, regardless of the sanctions. Siemens presents a most disturbing case in point.
Siemens claimed to have been obliged by old contracts which only involved sectors not covered by the sanctions. Still, the Stuxnet virus – which damaged Iranian centrifuges for enriching uranium and which was widely attributed to Israel – ended up attacking Siemens components. This fact alone should constitute ample food for thought.
Iran’s buoyed business boosters assert that dangling the prosperity carrot before the ayatollahs would moderate them. In fact, though, odds are that lifting constraints on Iranian oil exports, access to bank holdings abroad and funding for assorted construction and other ventures would have the directly opposite impact.
It would financially transfuse Tehran’s nuclear program and its unprecedented terror-sponsorship worldwide.
Iran, in other words, is shown that it can literally stick to its guns and further its “non-negotiable” genocidal plots against Israel, while the response from Washington is implausible indulgence that triggers an unnerving impetuous competition in Europe and Asia for lucrative Iranian opportunities.
Bucking the Trend ... 
Merkels emmissaries are spearheading the European efforts to support Israels most dangerous genocidal enemy.
Todays Germany is the new “Third Reich”.
In a short time from now, Germanys “elite” will again worship it’s famous Jew hater Wagner in Bayreuth.
Merkel LOVES that event…you can watch her live in the footsteps of Adolf Hitler.
So the Germans are telling Iran to “improve their relations with Israel.
Really – so that’s all right then – matter sorted!!!
we can all rest easy in out beds – not!!!!!!
One of the first things they taught us in econ, is that political sanctions don’t work. There is a point called the “Prisoner’s dilemma”. The first to break the sanctions get a windfall profit, as competition is limited and prices higher.
What didn’t they tell us? Something I call “military sanctions”. Instead of trying to get everybody to not buy, as in a ‘gentlemans’ agreement”. Not only do gentlemen read each others’ mail, they often cheat, for money if not love.
However, destroying Iran’s oil export facilities would economically castrate Iran’s government and wouldn’t require agreement to forgo trade. Iran wouldn’t be able to buy support any more, or finance their government operations such as subsidies to terrorism or building nukes.
This could easily be accomplished with missiles, no human pilots need be endangered.
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Under sanctions, Iran had to accept lower prices relative to the-then current market prices. However the world price was higher due to restrictions on demand for Iranian oil. To the extent effective, the sanctions raised world prices. Breaking the sanctions lowered world prices compared to the prices that would have been, hypothetically if sanctions hadn’t been broken.
Of course, in reality, sales of Iranian oil continued. They had to work outside the SWIFT banking system. They accepted gold in payment for oil. The gold was transported from Turkey. I assure you, someone bought that oil.
Of course, a successful takeout of Iran’s oil export facilities would raise the world price of oil.
That’s OK, as fracking costs more and requires a higher price. A lot of high-cost oil rigs in N. Dakota are shutting down. I’ve heard, bad debts exceed $1 trillion.
The rise of terrorism is highly positively correlated with increasing nationalization of oil infrastructure. Rightful government must protect property rights in foreign trade and investment.
The rush of German companies to do business with evil–Iran–is a bit frightening; but not unexpected. After all, there were several dozen European and American companies in Tehran, under Mossadegh and later, the Shah, 1945–1979. There were so many Americans in Tehran back then, that one part of town was called the “American colony.” But upon the eviction of the Shah, and the ascendency of the Ayatollahs, most of these companies left, or were thrown out.
Iranian oil? It wouldn’t seem so attractive if our worst-President-ever would allow increased drilling on Federal-owned land(North Dakota fracking is on privately owned land), and would allow the Keystone pipeline to be completed. Besides provinding 42,000 jobs for Americans, a completed Keystone pipeline would allow Canadian oil to be shipped overseas more efficiently, and thus help keep oil prices low, and more important, reduce demand for Iranian oil. Nevertheless, these abandoned Germans, in their rush to do business with evil, will one day have to reckon with factors beyond their control, and face the consequences of their cupidity(and stupidity!). Wasn’t it Lenin that said, to the effect, that capitalists “will sell us the rope” by which “we will hang them?”
Not a pretty sight, but so be it.