The Tehran-Berlin Axis
Flipping last week through the online itinerary of the German Near and Middle East Association (honorary chairman: Gerhard Schrder), I found the following entry: “April 16, 2008, Meeting with the Iranian Vice Foreign Minister S.E. Mehdi Safari in Berlin.” I couldn’t find anything in the German press about this visit. I turned to Iranian media. It reported that Mr. Safari was in Berlin for three days at the invitation of the German government. He met with officials at the foreign, interior and economics ministries, as well as with lawmakers and businessmen.
It is strange, to say the least, that neither the German government nor the media said a word about the visit. Along with the five veto-wielding U.N. Security Council members, Germany belongs to the Six-Power Group, which sets the course of international diplomacy on Iran’s nuclear program. Tehran’s quest for the bomb is perhaps the only international security issue where German foreign policy has real global relevance. And Mr. Safari is not some low-ranking official from a minor, peaceful power but a representative of a country that could soon trigger a nuclear war. His visit should have sparked wide interest in Germany.
But perhaps it’s not so surprising. The country’s position toward Tehran seems to be at a crossroads. The “grand coalition” government looks at Iran through different prisms. While Chancellor Angela Merkel argues for tougher sanctions if necessary to stop the Iranian bomb, Germany’s foreign policy establishment, including a key advisor to Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, preaches accommodation, even a “strategic partnership” with Iran.
The diplomatic dissonance is striking. In March, Ms. Merkel declared in what has been called a historic speech to the Israeli parliament that she won’t shy away from “using additional, tougher sanctions to convince Iran to stop its nuclear program.” If we Europeans were to shrink from tougher sanctions, said the Christian-Democratic chancellor, “we would have neither understood our historical respon