German Politicians on Iran

Our readers can rely on us when it comes to monitoring Germany’s relationship with Iran. Our last post in this context focused on commercial ties. This time around we’ll look at politicians.

Let’s start with Ruprecht Polenz, head of the Bundestag’s Foreign Affairs Committee, who we complemented in a previous post. Perhaps he, too, has been intoxicated by Rouhani’s election – can’t think of another reason for his recent comment (roughly translated) that there is now a “window of opportunity to resolve the nuclear dispute diplomatically.”

Why does Polenz think so?

In his words: because he knows Rouhani to be an intelligent, well-read man, who was not interested in an atomic bomb – even though the veteran German politician does admit that Iran’s new president will insist on advancing uranium enrichment, a certainty which he says will require the international community to seek controls and safeguards that will keep Tehran in the NPT.

Sounds like Polenz got twisted in knots there, but he probably meant well…

Over to Elmar Brok, a German European Parliament member who chairs its foreign affairs committee.  Seems he met with the sanctioned Iranian Oil Minister while attending the Frankfurt “energy conference” (previously covered here) .

According to the Iranian media, Brok told his interlocutor that Khameini’s alleged nuclear fatwa was a confidence-building measure in talks between Iran and the world powers. This was such a strange comment for any western politician that we compared this version with Brok’s own release– which made no mention of the fatwa.

Brok’s account does say that during their meeting he emphasized “until now, it seems as though talks have only been used to gain time” by Tehran. Knowing the Iranian press too well, we’ll give Brok the benefit of the doubt.

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