Protests against the promotion of trade with Iran of the German Association Numov

 

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Press relase of STOP THE BOMB: Rudolf Dressler criticizes NUMOV

Announcement of the STOP THE BOMB protests against Numov's promotion of trade with Iran

Speech of Fathiyeh Naghibzadeh at the STOP THE BOMB protest ralley

 

 

Press release: Former German Ambassador to Israel Rudolf Dressler criticizes German-Iranian business meeting

STOP THE BOMB campaign announces protests in front of the NUMOV office in Berlin

STOP THE BOMB, May 4, 2010

The Near and Middle East Association (NUMOV) - the central promoting organization for the German-Middle East trade founded in 1934 - organizes the second large forum for the support of German-Iranian trade relations within the shortest time on May 5 2009. Rudolf Dressler (SPD), former German Ambassador to Israel, supporter of the campaign “STOP THE BOMB - Cut off trade with the Iranian Regime!“ and member of the advisory board of the NUMOV criticizes: “I do not consider it to be opportune to hold such advertising events just at the present time. The momentary negotiation period requires in fact that one makes clear to the Iranian regime which price it has to pay if it continues to offend the rules of the international community with its nuclear program."  

According to Dressler, the German public should be better informed about the menace by Iran, the broad German-Iranian trade and the possibilities of sanctions. "Visits of western politicians in Iran, like the one of Gerhard Schröder in February of this year thwart the current efforts towards a solution of the conflict, even if they are declared as private travelling.“ Ex-Chancellor Schröder is the honorary chairman of the NUMOV and has consistently argued against sanctions towards Iran.

The "NUMOV Energy Round Table - Focus Iran" which takes place on May 5 2009 in Berlin will be about deals in the energy sector, in which Iran is particularly dependent on German technology. Yet another German-Iranian economic forum organized by the NUMOV in Düsseldorf was held on April 27 2009 and was attended by „representatives of about 200 German companies and numerous Iranian industrial managers“, said the Iranian Ambassador to Germany, Ali Reza Sheikh Attar. According to Farsnews Linde, BASF, Lurgi, ThyssenKrupp, Siemens, ZF Friedrichshafen, Mercedes, Volkswagen und MAN are involved in „large infrastructure projects in Iran“. (1) Furthermore, plans of the Bayerngas GmbH to deliver technology for the gas sector to Iran emerged on April 16 2009. (2) 

The campaign STOP THE BOMB, which advocates for effective sanctions against the Iranian regime, will hold a rally on May 5 at 11.00 am in front of the NUMOV office in Berlin demanding “No business with the Iranian regime! No support for terror, dictatorship, Islamism and anti-Semitism!”

Announcement: STOP THE BOMB protests against NUMOV and the German-Iranian business round table

Cut off trade with the Iranian regime! Demonstration on Tuesday, May 5 2009

11.00 am, in front of the NUMOV headquarters in Berlin-Mitte, Jägerstr. 63

As recently became known, a forum for the support of the German-Iranian economic relations  will take place on the 5th of May in Berlin, organized by the German Near and Middle East Association, briefly NUMOV. (1)  

Part of the first board members of the NUMOV, which was founded in 1934, were representatives of Siemens, IG Farben and other actors and profiteers of the national-socialistic war and destruction policy. “We have never been political“, states NUMOV manager Helene Rang despites that. She rejected critical questions about the support for business with a regime that denies the Holocaust as an „insulting Germans“. (2) Today, leading representatives of German companies like ThyssenKrupp, Deutsche Bahn, Deutsche Bank, MAN und E.ON Ruhrgas belong to the NUMOV board of directors, as well as members of the Bundestag and leading media representatives. (3) Honorary chairman is the ex-chancellor Gerhard Schröder, who already argued against sanctions and for the expansion of trade relations with the Islamic Republic Iran for years. (4) In February of this year Schröder traveled to Teheran to meet Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the President of the Parliament, Ali Larijani. The pictures documented on the NUMOV website give an impression of the cordial atmosphere of this meeting. (5)

Yet, during an economic conference which took place on the April 27 2009 in Düsseldorf organized by NUMOV “representatives of around 200 German companies and numerous Iranian industrial managers“ had discussed „ways to further boost bilateral industrial ties“, said the Ambassador of the Islamic Republic of Iran in Germany, Ali Reza Sheikh Attar. (6) The second meeting, which is announced for the May 5 2009 in Berlin, will deal particularly with the energy sector which is the most important power base and source of income of the regime. Especially in this field large parts of the industry are in the possession of the regime and particularly the Iranian Revolutionary Guards. The Revolutionary Guards are responsible for the "protection" and "expansion" of the Islamic revolution, by fighting the opposition in Iran and in exile as well as by supporting Islamic forces worldwide, particularly the anti-Semitic terrorist organizations Hamas and Hizbollah. Also the Iranian nuclear program and the missile program is pursued substantially by the Revolutionary Guards. (7)  

The Islamic Republic Iran is not only the biggest and most aggressive state sponsor of anti-Semitism and Islamism. It also represents an inhuman dictatorship, which suppresses, persecutes, tortures and murders especially democratic forces, women, homosexuals and religious and ethnic minorities. The Iranian nuclear program is not only an existential threat for Israel. It is also a global threat, e.g. by the imminent nuclear arms race in the crisis region of the Middle East and the strengthening of Islamist forces.

In spite of all this Germany is still the most important western trading partner and technology supplier of the Iranian regime. In 2008 alone, the export to Iran rose about 10.5%. (8) And if NUMOV now wants to promote further trade relations with Iran, this is far from "apolitical", but a support of the Islamic Republic Iran, of the terror regime and the Islamist war against Israel and against freedom, democracy and human rights worldwide.  

The campaign STOP THE BOMB, therefore, calls on the day of the German Iranian business meeting for a first protest in front of the Berlin NUMOV headquarters:

No business with the Iranian regime!
No support for terror, dictatorship, Islamism and anti-Semitism!
For a secular and democratic Iran!     

(2) Ibid. For the legitimization of the German-Iranian trade NUMOV manager Helene Rang qualifies also the Holocaust denial pursued by the Iranian regime during a radio-interview (from minute 23.20 on). An English translation can be found here.
(6) see also Press TV.
(7) On the role of the Revolutionary Guards see for example the studies of Ali Alfoneh.

Traders and Heroes – Germany's Alliance with the Iranian Regime

Speech of Fathiyeh Naghibzadeh (STOP THE BOMB) at the protest ralley in front of the NUMOV-headquarters in Berlin, May 5, 2009

Ladies and gentlemen,

In 1984 Hans-Dietrich Genscher was the first western foreign minister who visited the Mullah regime in Tehran. His questions regarding the executions in Iran remained unanswered. Nevertheless, this did not change anything in the fact that during the following years Germany became one of the best friends of the murderous Islamic Republic of Iran and has remained it until the present day.

The better the German-Iranian relations, the cheekier the Iranian regime became. In 1992 the Mullahs sent a death squad here to Berlin which massacred the leaders of the Iranian-Kurdish opposition in exile in the restaurant Mykonos. Berlin was no isolated case. The commandos of the Iranian regime were killing in whole Europe.

Not even the arrest warrant of a German court against the Iranian head of the secret service Fallahian and the classification of the Iranian policies as state terrorism could permanently interfere the German-Iranian relations. The Iranian regime has enough other killers whom it sends to Germany to hold friendly talks here. One of them is Mohammad Larijani, the former deputy secretary of state of the Iranian regime who also defends stoning against all criticism even today [1] and who once answered a question regarding mass executions that Iran had a very high birth rate. [2]

Larijani appeared no more than a year ago at a Berlin conference which was promoted by the Federal Government, he stated that the denial of the Holocaust in the Muslim world had nothing to do with anti-Semitism and called for the annihilation of Israel. [3]

His brother Ali Larijani boasts of supporting Hamas and said that the Holocaust was a matter of opinion, as he declared in Munich - the former 'capital of the [Nazi-]movement'. [4]  A terribly nice family!

Ladies and gentlemen,

Genscher and Kinkel also formed the concept of “critical dialogue”. According to a joke this dialogue means that if Mullahs and Europeans meet, both criticize the USA and of course Israel. This is called a critical dialogue!

This dialogue has turned out to be a constant of the German policy. No German government wanted to endanger the good relations with the Iranian regime since then. On the contrary, the successors of the CDU/FDP government yet tried to exceed the collaboration of the middle-class parties with the religious-fascistic regime in Iran. Think of Claudia Roth from the Green Party who recently regretted the cancellation of the German Federal Government yet after Ahmadinejad`s anti-Semitic inciting speech in Geneva.

Or, think of course of Gerhard Schröder, the honorary chairperson of the association in front of whose headquarters we are protesting today. Mr. Schröder is always in the front line when it comes to making good business with the crudest dictatorships in the world. It was him who shook hands with Ahmadinejad in Tehran. And now his organization, the German Near and Middle East Association (NUMOV) wants to collect the proceeds for this handshake. The Iranians call the ex-chancellor a 'Dalal' - a man who arranges racketeering for hand money .

Ladies and gentlemen,

The facts are on the table: In the so-called anti-racism conference in Geneva the world allowed that a racist and anti-Semite taught them about morality. There Ahmadinejad said almost everything one needs to know about the Iranian regime.

The Iranian regime has answered the American offers to negotiate by the arrest and conviction of the Iranian-American journalist Roxana Saberi.

And, not to let any doubt arise about its character, the regime has executed Delara Darabi secretly only a few days ago. One of many minors who were sentenced to death.

This regime does not give a damn about reform, diplomacy and dialogue. It denies the Holocaust and prepares a new one. Not anybody who deals and conducts dialogue with this regime can invoke on the concern about the people in Iran, about Israel or the peace of the world, in any case.

No, the conference of the NUMOV is quite profane about profit. One can at best allege hypocrisy – if not even complicity – against the Federal Government which admits such conferences and business.

The businessmen and politicians should not forget only one thing: This regime will not last eternally. On the day of reckoning the Iranian people will not make a difference between the so-called 'reformers' and 'conservatives' in contrast to the Europeans. And they will ask who made it possible that this regime was able to survive for so long economically and politically.

Let me finally report about a phone call which reached the Persian section from radio Israel some years ago from Iran: The caller reported about policemen who were bashing protesting students. These policemen moved in new cars –made in Germany.

The caller concluded: The Germans actually always stay the same – earlier they were fascists – and now they support our fascists.