German antisemitism chief to ‘Post’: UN weapons embargo on Iran is needed
Germany’s government abstained in the United Nations Security Council vote last week to extend the UN embargo against selling weapons to Iran’s regime, against the antisemitism commissioner’s opinion
By BENJAMIN WEINTHALIRANIAN PRESIDENT Hassan Rouhani (right) and Foreign Minister Javad Zarif. Who wanted to pay the price of moral action to truly stop Iran?(photo credit: DANISH SIDDIQUI/ REUTERS)
In a rare show of support from a German official for Israel’s security and greater Middle East stability, the commissioner to combat antisemitism in the state of Hesse, Uwe Becker, on Friday said the UN weapons embargo against Iran should be extended.“The reason of state [raison d’état] of the Iranian regime is the destruction of Israel,” he told The Jerusalem Post. “If Germany takes its own reason of state – the right of existence of the Jewish state – seriously, it must stand clear for continuing the arms embargo, freeze its relations with the mullah regime in Tehran and thus send a clear and unequivocal signal to the Iranian leadership.”“It is not a question of a policy against the Iranian people, who are even deprived of important freedom rights by their own government, but of a clear position towards the political leadership in Tehran,” Becker said.Germany’s government abstained in the United Nations Security Council vote last week to extend the UN embargo against selling weapons to Iran. The abstention was viewed by critics, including the US, as siding with the clerical regime in Tehran.“When it comes to the question if the Iranian regime is a reliable government whom you can trust, the simple answer is no,” Becker said. “Over the past years, while officially upholding the nuclear deal, the mullah regime has enhanced its medium-range missile program, so that medium-range weapons can reach the territory of the EU. Those weapons are effective in their real and, therefore, deterrent role only if they can be equipped with nuclear warheads, which shows the real mid-term strategy of Iran.”Germany’s vehement opposition to snapback sanctions against Iran’s regime for violations of the 2015 nuclear deal, and its seeming approval of granting Iran the right to buy weapons, highlights the contradictions of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s pledge to advance Israel’s security.The security of the Jewish state is “non-negotiable” for her government, Merkel told the Knesset in 2008. German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas, who said he went into “politics because of Auschwitz,” has authorized his ministry to celebrate the Iranian Islamic revolution – a movement that calls for the obliteration of Israel.Israeli Ambassador to the UN Gilad Erdan tweeted on Friday that he met with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and US Ambassador to the UN Kelly Craft, as well as US Special Iran Envoy Brian Hook, adding: “I reiterated that Israel fully supports the US snapback of sanctions against Iran. We will never let the US stand alone – especially when other countries enable Iran to push their murderous agenda.”Europe’s opposition to a weapons embargo shows how naive Europe, Becker said, adding that the “Iranian government is proclaiming the destruction of Israel as its goal. Iran is attacking the Jewish state by its own guards in Syria and by supporting the terror organization Hezbollah in Lebanon as well as by supplying terror groups in the Gaza Strip.”“The EU must not help Russia and China to strengthen the military power of the mullah regime in its own interest but also in the interest of Israel,” he said. “The embargo is at least the chance to freeze the present balance of power, which is essential.”“I wish that the Iranian people will have a future in which they can live their life in freedom and prosperity without sanctions and hardship, even without governmental fundamentalism,” Becker said. “But presently, we see a regime in Tehran that is suppressing its own people, that is betraying the world and is threatening and attacking the State of Israel.”In response to Becker’s statements, Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean of the human-rights organization Simon Wiesenthal Center, told the Post: “Finally, a German official connecting the bold dots between antisemitism and the Jew-hating ayatollah seeking another final solution, this time against the Jewish state. Merkel’s dangerous hypocrisy on full display.”
