Germany must change for EU sanctions on Iran to have bite

„As Iran's second-largest trading partner, Germany has a responsibility — and great leverage over Iran. Germany should lead the way, as an issue of conscience, in making sure these sanctions have teeth — and that the Islamic Republic feels their bite. "Germany, with its anti-Semitic past, is now the biggest supporter in Europe of this anti-Semitic regime — it's a scandal," said Ulrike Becker, a founding member of Stop the Bomb, a human rights organization of German and Austrian intellectuals and activists dedicated to preventing the mullahs from acquiring nuclear weapons. In June, the European Union finally got around to passing sanctions prohibiting its member nations from investing directly in Iran's oil and gas sectors. But the EU sanctions were "weak, much weaker than American sanctions," Becker told me in an interview. One reason for that, she believes, is Germany's opposition to isolating its trading partner.

Becker cites last month's attempt by the German delegation at an EU foreign ministers meeting in Luxembourg to remove sanctions on Iran's gas sector, and German Chancellor Angela Merkel's opposition to British efforts to penalize the mullahs following the regime's bloody suppression of Iran's nonviolent opposition movement and detention of British Embassy staff last summer. "Because of the engagement policy over the past two years, there was no pressure on Iran, so precious time was lost," Becker says. "Now the time for small steps is past; what we need now are crippling sanctions."”