BERLIN, May 14 (Xinhua) -- The Free Democratic Party (FDP) criticized the German federal government on Monday for failing to shield German companies operating in Iran from new U.S. sanctions.
FDP foreign policy spokesperson Alexander Graf Lambsdorff told public broadcaster ARD that Berlin had not developed credible plans to counter new U.S. sanctions against Iran in spite of repeated threats by U.S. President Donald Trump to withdraw from the landmark nuclear deal.
The FDP politician proposed making greater use of the European Union's (EU) publicly-owned European Investment Bank (EIB) to provide financing for business between the bloc and Iran as a potential solution neglected by the government. This way firms would not have to rely on private sector banks with branches in the United States and were hence barred from servicing any transactions with links to Iran under the newly-imposed sanctions regime.
German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas recently cautioned that he saw "no easy solution" to excluding German firms from the economic fallouts of sanctions aimed at Iran. As a consequence, business leaders would have to make a choice between being active either in the U.S. or Iranian market.
Washington has announced that companies currently active in Iran will have a grace period of between three and six months to wind down their operations entirely before facing the risk of hefty fines or loss of commercial access to the lucrative U.S. market.
The foreign ministers of Germany, France and Britain are scheduled to hold emergency talks over the subject with Iranian representatives in Brussels on Tuesday. Maas told press that the goal of the meeting was to ensure that "Iran continues to abide by the rules and regulations of the Vienna nuclear accord," whilst "preserving economic incentives" for Tehran in exchange.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) has joined other state representatives around the world in condemning Trump's announcement to withdraw from the Iran nuclear accord. Speaking to Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, the chancellor emphasized that Germany remains committed to the terms of the nuclear accord.
According to the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna, Iran has so far complied with all of the conditions established under the deal.
