A scarecrow model is set on fire by Iranian demonstratorson during the annual pro-Palestinian rally marking Al-Quds Day in Tehran, Iran, June 23, 2017.. (photo credit: NAZANIN TABATABAEE YAZDI/ TIMA VIA REUTERS)
X ![]()
Dear Reader,
As you can imagine, more people are reading The Jerusalem Post than ever before. Nevertheless, traditional business models are no longer sustainable and high-quality publications, like ours, are being forced to look for new ways to keep going. Unlike many other news organizations, we have not put up a paywall. We want to keep our journalism open and accessible and be able to keep providing you with news and analyses from the frontlines of Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish World.
As one of our loyal readers, we ask you to be our partner.
For $5 a month you will receive access to the following:
- A user experience almost completely free of ads
- Access to our Premium Section
- Content from the award-winning Jerusalem Report and our monthly magazine to learn Hebrew – Ivrit
- A brand new ePaper featuring the daily newspaper as it appears in print in Israel
Help us grow and continue telling Israel’s story to the world.
Thank you,
Ronit Hasin-Hochman, CEO, Jerusalem Post Group
Yaakov Katz, Editor-in-Chief
UPGRADE YOUR JPOST EXPERIENCE FOR 5$ PER MONTH Show me later
The American ambassador to Germany, Richard Grenell, told The Jerusalem Post on Tuesday that the US government will contemplate sanctions against French and German entities that seek to evade sanctions on Iran’s clerical regime.
“The US will consider sanctions on those entities participating in these tactics,” Grenell said, adding the French and German activities “would not be a smart move.”
Grenell’s strong statements were in response to a Monday Wall Street Journal article, reporting that “France and Germany have joined forces to rescue a European effort to create a payments channel to keep trade flowing with Iran, defying US attempts to take the air out of the plan.”
The WSJ article cited senior diplomats as the sources for the French and German strategy to circumvent US sanctions.
The US government classifies Iran as the leading international state-sponsor of terrorism.
When asked about Germany, which has declared Israel’s security interests to part of its raison d’être, the spokesman for Israel’s foreign ministry, Emmanuel Nahshon, told the Post, “We have an ongoing dialogue with Germany on Iran related issues. We prefer to conduct it directly with the German authorities, and not through the media.”
However, just days ago at a pro-Israel conference in Frankfurt, Strategic Affairs Minister Gilad Erdan urged Chancellor Angela Merkel’s administration to counter Iran because it is an”exporter of terror.”
“Germany should take a more aggressive stance against the Iranian regime… It was only yesterday that President Rouhani called Israel ‘metastatic cancer.’ History has taught us that antisemitic threats from fanatical leaders, and exporters of terror who have hegemonic aspirations, must be taken seriously,” said Erdan.
He implored Merkel to join US sanctions against Iran. President Reuven Rivlin also urged Merkel in October, during her visit to Jerusalem, to support American sanctions against the Islamic Republic of Iran. Merkel has consistently rejected Israel’s pleas to sanction Iran’s regime, raising questions about her administration’s support for the security of the Jewish state.
When the Post asked Germany’s social democratic foreign minister Heiko Maas, who is a zealous supporter of busting US sanctions against Iran, and who announced earlier this year that he went into politics “because of Auschwitz,” about the sanctions evasion mechanism, an unnamed spokesperson for the German foreign ministry told the Post on Wednesday: “Foreign Minister Maas has repeatedly expressed his clear attitude to the Shoah in his speeches.”
When asked for specifics, the foreign ministry declined to respond. When asked for a specific comment to Ambassador Grenell, the unnamed spokesperson referred the Post to entries on the German foreign ministry website. The Post found no entries on the current main page of the website that responds to Grenell and Israel’s security. When the Post pressed for an explicit response to Grenell’s comment and the apparent disconnect between Maas’s comment about Auschwitz and his conduct to boost economic support for a regime in Tehran that is the largest state-sponsor of lethal antisemitism and Holocaust denial, Maas’s unnamed spokesperson did not respond.
Paul Furia, a spokesman for France’s foreign ministry, emailed the Post that France is working on a response via another spokesperson who is well-versed in the sanctions matter.
According to the WSJ article, “The steps by Europe’s most powerful countries are part of their campaign to salvage the 2015 Iran nuclear deal after President Trump withdrew the US in May. Their goal is to help European companies continue some business activity with Iran despite sweeping new US sanctions on the country and any company that does business with it.”
The Journal added that “France or Germany will host the corporation that would handle the payments channel, the diplomats said. If France hosts it, a German official will head the corporation and vice versa. Both countries will help fund the corporation.”
Chancellor Merkel’s office did not immediately respond to a Post query.
Join Jerusalem Post Premium Plus now for just $5 and upgrade your experience with an ads-free website and exclusive content. Click here>>
Comments are closed.