Reports that Siemens, the German engineering group, is refusing to supply and maintain new turbocompressors for Iran's South Pars gas field are the latest examples of how international sanctions are hitting the country's industry - but business ties between Germany and Iran remain strong.
The news about Siemens should come as no surprise after the company said two years ago it would not enter into any new deals with Iran.
Other German firms, though, continue to engage in brisk trade with the country and are finding ways of exporting goods despite mounting restrictions.
German companies have adapted to the sanctions and even the European Union's decision in January to freeze the assets of Iran's central bank and this month's move to disconnect Iranian banks from the Swift financial transfer network won't shut down legal exports of machinery, chemical products, agricultural produce, vehicles and vehicle components to Iran.
Alternative ways are being found for settling trade debts, including suitcases filled with cash, barter deals, and especially money transfers via banks in third-party countries such as Turkey, Armenia, Belarus and Azerbaijan.
German exports to Iran fell 18 per cent last year but still amounted to a hefty €3.1 billion (Dh15.05bn). They are expected to fall at a similar rate this year, with the German engineering industry association, VDMA, complaining this month that the financial sanctions will have "massive effects" on German firms. But given the West's determination to tighten the economic stranglehold on Iran, an export drop of less than a fifth this year, seems relatively minor.
Germany is the EU's biggest exporter of goods to Iran, well ahead of Italy and France. In 2010, China was the biggest source of Iranian imports, followed by the UAE and Germany, according to the CIA's World Factbook.
It may seem strange that Germany maintains such strong business ties with a nation whose leader, president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, denies the Holocaust and wants to wipe Israel off the map. After all, denying the Nazi genocide of six million Jews is a crime in Germany, and supporting Israel is a firm part of Germany's foreign policy doctrine.
Yet German firms have gone on supplying industrial equipment that Iran not only cherishes due to its quality, but relies on to keep its industries functioning.
Some two-thirds of Iranian industrial firms use machinery and equipment made in Germany and rely on imports of German spare parts. The main reason for this is that Germany helped Iran to industrialise in the 1920s. Sectors such as the cement, paper and textile industries were built up using machinery made in Germany.
Recent trade and business exchanges, though legal and not in breach of the various sanctions already imposed on Iran, reflects Germany's long-running ambivalence towards the West's tough stance on Iran, despite its claim to be 100 per cent behind efforts to stop the nuclear programme.
For years, Germany maintained a balance between backing sanctions vigorously enough to avoid negative international headlines, and preventing the restrictions from becoming so severe that they hurt German business.
But the escalation of tensions this year, with growing expectations of an Israeli air strike against Iranian nuclear installations and an EU embargo on importing Iranian oil due to come into force on July 1, has forced Germany to position itself more clearly.
Guido Westerwelle, the foreign minister, said last month that sanctions should have been tightened much sooner and more rigorously.
Even though annual exports to Iran are worth billions, the country is virtually irrelevant to Germany as a trading partner, ranking 43rd in a list of German export destinations in 2010 and making up just 0.5 per cent of total exports.
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Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
Milestones on the road to union
1970
October 26: Bahrain withdraws from a proposal to create a federation of nine with the seven Trucial States and Qatar.
December: Ahmed Al Suwaidi visits New York to discuss potential UN membership.
1971
March 1: Alex Douglas Hume, Conservative foreign secretary confirms that Britain will leave the Gulf and “strongly supports” the creation of a Union of Arab Emirates.
July 12: Historic meeting at which Sheikh Zayed and Sheikh Rashid make a binding agreement to create what will become the UAE.
July 18: It is announced that the UAE will be formed from six emirates, with a proposed constitution signed. RAK is not yet part of the agreement.
August 6: The fifth anniversary of Sheikh Zayed becoming Ruler of Abu Dhabi, with official celebrations deferred until later in the year.
August 15: Bahrain becomes independent.
September 3: Qatar becomes independent.
November 23-25: Meeting with Sheikh Zayed and Sheikh Rashid and senior British officials to fix December 2 as date of creation of the UAE.
November 29: At 5.30pm Iranian forces seize the Greater and Lesser Tunbs by force.
November 30: Despite a power sharing agreement, Tehran takes full control of Abu Musa.
November 31: UK officials visit all six participating Emirates to formally end the Trucial States treaties
December 2: 11am, Dubai. New Supreme Council formally elects Sheikh Zayed as President. Treaty of Friendship signed with the UK. 11.30am. Flag raising ceremony at Union House and Al Manhal Palace in Abu Dhabi witnessed by Sheikh Khalifa, then Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi.
December 6: Arab League formally admits the UAE. The first British Ambassador presents his credentials to Sheikh Zayed.
December 9: UAE joins the United Nations.
A MINECRAFT MOVIE
Director: Jared Hess
Starring: Jack Black, Jennifer Coolidge, Jason Momoa
Rating: 3/5
The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950