Who is Iran’s main business partner? In 2008 the EU was—in its own
words—the “first trade partner of Iran,” with imports and exports
totalling €25.4 billion ($36.4 billion) followed by China, Japan, and
South Korea. The €14.1 billion in European exports to Iran last year,
up 1.5% from 2007, included mainly machinery and transport equipment,
manufactured goods, chemicals and even dual-use telecommunications
equipment responsible for tracking and imprisoning protesters. Of the
€11.3 billion in European imports from Iran, 90% is energy-related.
Germany, France and Italy top the list, the former two also members of
the team involved in nuclear negotiations with Iran.
Yet despite the IRGC’s deep
involvement in the Iranian economy, the Associated Press reported
shortly after the June elections that Daniel Bernbeck, head of the
German-Iranian Industry Group, said that “doing business in Iran is a
far cry from doing business with the government itself….I see no
moral question here at all. We are not doing business with Iran, but
with Iranian companies. We are not supporting the government.”
In the past two decades Europe’s refrain has been that trade keeps
the doors of communications open and allows them to openly discuss the
nuclear issue and human rights violations. In a 2007…
