BERLIN – Swiss energy giant EGL’s €18 billion gas contract with Iran prompted
criticism on Tuesday from the US Embassy.
“As we noted in the past when
this deal was first announced, oil and gas deals with Iran send the wrong
message when Iran continues to defy UN Security Council resolutions. We have
raised our concerns with the Swiss government about this arrangement on multiple
occasions,” a spokesman for the embassy in Bern told
The Jerusalem Post in an
e-mail.
“US law [the Iran Sanctions Act, as amended by the Comprehensive
Iran Sanctions, Accountability and Divestment Act] provides for sanctions for
certain investments that contribute to Iran’s ability to develop and transport
its petroleum resources,” the spokesman noted.
When asked about the US
criticism of the EGL deal with the National Iranian Gas Export Company, Lilly
Frei, head of corporate communications for EGL, told the Post on Wednesday, also
by e-mail, that “EGL complies with legal regulations, including those of the
international community of states, and will, of course, continue to adhere to
them, should they be adjusted. It is not appropriate for EGL to comment [on]
possible political developments.
These are to be answered by the
respective authorities.”
The spokesman for the American Embassy said that
“the US reviews all activities in Iran’s energy sector in light of our law which
provides for sanctions on activities that directly and significantly contribute
to the enhancement of Iran’s ability to develop and transport its petroleum
resources.”
Mark Dubowitz, the executive director of the Washington-based
Foundation for Defense of Democracies and an expert on gas sanctions, told the
Post on Wednesday, “The Obama administration and the European Union should be
scrutinizing the EGL deal to determine if it violates sanctions laws prohibiting
investment or the transfer of technology, technical expertise, goods and
services in connection with Iran. These are typically complex and opaque deals
which require intense scrutiny, particularly given its size and geopolitical
importance.”
Dubowitz called on the American and EU governments to
“investigate whether the long-term supply contract between EGL and Iran provides
the equivalent of investment under US and EU sanctions laws if it’s being used
by the Iranian regime as collateral to secure the issue of participation bonds
issued to raise funds for South Pars gas field investment or other Iranian
energy projects.”
EGL’s 25-year gas contract, signed in 2008, to import
more than 5 billion cubic meters of Iranian gas each year caused friction
between Israel and Switzerland, resulting in the Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem
summoning the Swiss ambassador in 2008. The EGL contract was signed with the
National Iranian Export Company, a subsidiary of the National Iranian Gas
Company that was placed on the United Kingdom’s Proliferation Concerns List in
February 2009.
Frei, from EGL, declined to comment on the parent
company’s involvement in nuclear proliferation.
The Swiss business
newspaper Handelszeitung noted in an article on Wednesday on rising US criticism
of the EGL gas contract that Austrian Foreign Minister Michael Spindelegger
expects Switzerland to adhere to the new EU sanctions against Iran.
While
not directly naming the EGL, a spokesman for Spindelegger said “companies have
to ask themselves the question, whether it is a clever move at this time to
conduct business transactions with Iran.”
The Austrian oil giant OMV
pulled out of Iran largely because of fear of sanctions and the political
instability associated with the Islamic Republic’s drive to enrich uranium.