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Germany’s foreign minister, Heiko Maas, is seeking a way to undercut the Trump administration sanctions against trade with Iran.  At a cabinet meeting in Berlin earlier this month he stated that “Europe needs to set up payment systems independent of the United States if it wants to save the nuclear deal between Iran and major powers that were abandoned by President Donald Trump…That is why it is indispensable that we strengthen European autonomy by creating payment channels that are independent of the U.S., a European monetary Fund and an independent Swift system.”  He added, “Every day the deal is alive is better than the highly explosive crisis that would otherwise threaten the Middle East.”

Politico reported (August 12, 2018) “EU leaders including U.K. Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt, France’s Jean-Yves LeDrian, Germany’s Heiko Maas, and EU top diplomat Federica Mogherini issued a statement making clear they are actively working to thwart renewed U.S. sanctions against Iran.” They added, “We deeply regret the re-imposition of sanctions by the U.S., due to the latter’s withdrawal from JCPOA, the EU is taking legislative action – activating a so-called blocking statute – in a bid to protect EU businesses operating in Iran from U.S. economic sanctions.”

According to his official website, Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani has “threatened” Europe while meeting with British ambassador to Iran, Rob Macaire.  He stated, “After the U.S. illegal withdrawal from the nuclear deal, the ball is in Europe’s court now.” Rouhani and Iranian senior military commanders have recently threatened to disrupt oil shipments from the Gulf countries through the Strait of Hormuz if Washington tries to strangle Iran’s oil exports.  Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei has threatened the Europeans with the resumption of Iran’s nuclear activities.  He said, “If the Europeans linger over our demands, Iran has the right to resume its nuclear activities.  When we see that the JCPOA is useless, one way forward is to restart those halted activities.” In his May 23, 2018 address to Iranian government officials, he conditioned Iran’s remaining in the nuclear deal on European compliance with such demands as: a resolution against the U.S. violation of the UN Security Council resolution 2231, which endorsed the JCPOA; a promise to stop objecting to missile testing and (Iran’s) actions in the Middle East; that the Europeans stand against U.S. sanctions; and European protection for Iran’s oil sales and financial transactions.

Germany’s Heiko Maas and the leaders of the European Union are attempting to undercut the Trump administration’s efforts to achieve a deal with Iran that insures that Iran will not become a nuclear power in less than a decade.  The European appeasers are not only eager to trade with Iran but are willing, at the same time, to overlook Iran’s nefarious behavior throughout the region, and its development of ballistic missiles that will ultimately threaten Europe and the U.S.  They are equally complacent about the sunset clause of the current nuclear deal that allows Iran to resume its nuclear activities leading to a nuclear arsenal in a few years.  Given the lack of intrusive inspections by the UN, and Iranian prohibition of inspecting its military facilities, one would not be surprised if Iran is not currently developing a nuclear bomb in secret.

Iran’s past cheating and obstructing inspectors from digging into its secret nuclear activities should alarm the international community, but apparently not the European Union community.  The Washington Times reported (August 6, 2015) that Iran was “undermining one of President Obama’s primary arguments for the nuclear deal with Iran.  The head of the United Nation’s nuclear watchdog agency said Iran has refused to allow UN inspectors to interview scientists and military officers to investigate accusations that Tehran operated a covert nuclear weapons program.  Yukiya Amano, director-general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) told the Wall Street Journal that Iran has refused for five years to allow interviewing Mohsen Fakhrizadeh-Mahabadi, an Iranian military officer suspected of overseeing weapons development.”  According to the Washington Times, President Obama pointed out that Congress and the public should support the nuclear deal in part because UN inspectors will be thorough and permanent whether or not Iran intends to cooperate.  The nuclear deal, or the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) was signed before the UN report.

The Europeans however, continue to appease Iran and the Muslim world.  Angela Merkel, Germany’s Chancellor, has admitted over a million Muslim migrants into Germany.  She has recently declared that the “4.5 million Muslims living with us, their religion, Islam, has become part of Germany.”

The Europeans are mum about the Islamic Republic of Iran sanctioned killings of political opponents in the European Continent.  In September, 1992, there was the Mykonos Restaurant assassination in Berlin, in which three exiled Kurdish-Iranian opposition leaders were murdered on orders from Tehran.  In July, 1996, in Stockholm, Sweden, Kamran Hedayati, another Kurdish-Iranian dissident was an assassination target of the Iranian regime.  A bus carrying Israeli tourists in Burgas, Bulgaria was bombed in 2012 by the Lebanese terrorist group Hezbollah, on orders from the Iranian regime.  In the Netherlands capital of Der Hague, in November, 2017, the Iranian regime murdered Ahmad Mola Nissi, the leader of an Iranian Arab separatist group from Khuzistan, the oil-rich region in Southwestern Iran.  More recently, on a tip from the Israeli Mossad, Belgian police discovered and arrested a married Iranian couple in Antwerp who had a powerful bomb in their car.  The same day, German police arrested Assadollah Assadi, a member of Iran’s diplomatic mission in Vienna, who had provided the bomb and ordered the couple to use it to attack a rally being held by an Iranian opposition group in the French town of Villepinte – an event that featured former U.S. Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich and former New York Major Rudy Giuliani.

In fact, despite evidence that Iranian embassies in Europe are being used as bases for Iranian terrorist operations in Europe, EU legislators have approved plans for the European Investment Bank as a way to do business with the oppressive Iranian theocracy.  The EU’s hypocrisy is transparent, while boasting of its dedication to human rights, it is willingly ignoring Iran’s notorious human rights record, one of the worst in the world, for the sake of economic expediency.

John Bolton, the White House national security adviser was in Israel last week to discuss Iran with Prime Minister Netanyahu.  The two deliberated on how to continue to roll back Iran’s aggression in the region, and to make sure that the Iranians never have a nuclear weapon.  At a Jerusalem press conference on Wednesday (8/22/18) Bolton said, “We expect that the Europeans will see, as businesses all over Europe are seeing, that the choice between doing business with Iran or doing business with the U.S. is very clear to them.”

Appeasing evil has been a European specialty.  Whether it was Hitler, Arab dictators, Palestinian terrorists, or Iranian Ayatollahs.  Beyond that hypocrisy of preaching human rights while propping up a brutal regime in Tehran, the Europeans have shown their disloyalty and betrayal of the U.S.  Twice in the last century America has come to their rescue…it has protected them from the Soviet Communist menace earlier, and Russian aggresssion today.  Undermining U.S. efforts to get a safer and better nuclear deal with Iran, which is in the interest of the global community, will only sink the EU further into the abyss.