The Philadelphia Bulletin: German Company will not Sign New Contracts with Iran

by David Bedein

Jerusalem - Exactly 19 years ago, when Iraq launched 39 missile attacks against Israel, causing damage to more than 10,000 homes in the center of the country, a German activist organization known as the “Society for Threatened Peoples,” sent a delegation to Israel to warn the Jewish state that 88 German companies were supplying Iran, Iraq, Syria and Libya with the technology for weapons of mass destruction (WMD), with the full knowledge of the German government.

The full report on the exported WMD to these countries is entitled Weapons of Mass Destruction: The Cases of Iran, Syria & Libya and written by Mr. Kenneth Timmerman.

This reporter, then a correspondent for CNN Radio, flew to Germany to follow up on the story and asked members of the German Bundestag parliament about German companies involved in aiding these nations with such lethal technology. The answer of members of the Bundestag was that, indeed, such exports were illegal, but that these German companies were carrying out their exports of lethal technology through subsidiaries outside of the Fatherland.

This past week, there was an important development in the campaign to advance a German economic boycott of the regime in Iran: The management of the huge German conglomerate Siemens announced yesterday that it had decided not to sign any more new business contracts with Iran. However, the company made it clear that it would not break existing contracts with Iranian clients - including a deal, valued at 1 billion Euro, for producing gas in Iran.

Just recently, Tehran had announced that it had signed the deal with Siemens for improving the gas production.

However, pressure was brought to bear on Siemens to stop its commercial ties with Iran, and that pressure bore results. Peter Loescher, the CEO of Siemens, announced at the meeting of the conglomerate’s shareholders about a decision to halt business ties with Iran. The decision will go into effect by mid-year.

View this story in the Philadelphia Bulletin