GERMANY PREPARING TO REVEAL HOW U.S. CORPORATIONS BY-PASSED IRAN EMBARGO

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SPIEGEL, GERMANY - German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier
opposes French calls for European Union sanctions against Iran. He will
back up his case with German Foreign Ministry data showing that leading
French and American companies are conducting large amounts of business
with Iran.

According to information obtained by Spiegel, the economics department
of the German Foreign Ministry has collected revealing data which
Steinmeier will use to back up his argument against EU sanctions.

Several French companies in the automobile, energy and financial sectors
-- including Peugeot, Renault, Total, BNP Paribas and Societé Générale
-- have hardly reduced the level of business they do with Iran,
according to the Foreign Ministry data. German exports to Iran, in
contrast, have dramatically declined.

Even more explosive is the data that reveals US hypocrisy over
sanctions. The German Foreign Ministry accuses American firms of
bypassing the boycott against Iran, which has been in place since 1979,
by creating front companies in Dubai to carry out their business. German
politicians have long internally accused the United States of knowingly
tolerating the practice.

The differences in how strictly sanctions are applied by different
countries has led to "German firms being pushed out of the Iranian
market," a high-ranking source in the Foreign Ministry told Spiegel.

http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,507443,00.html

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