Cablegate: Unscr 1747/Oecd: German Reaction to Follow-Up

VZCZCXYZ0026
OO RUEHWEB

DE RUEHRL #1291 1801542
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
O 291542Z JUN 07
FM AMEMBASSY BERLIN
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 8672
INFO RUEHGG/UN SECURITY COUNCIL COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
RUCPDOC/DEPT OF COMMERCE WASHINGTON DC PRIORITY
RUEATRS/DEPT OF TREASURY WASHDC PRIORITY
RHEHNSC/NSC WASHDC PRIORITY
RUEHBS/USEU BRUSSELS PRIORITY

UNCLAS BERLIN 001291

SIPDIS

SENSITIVE

STATE FOR EEB AND EUR/AGS
SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PREL EFIN ETRD EXIM OECD UN IR GM
SUBJECT: UNSCR 1747/OECD: GERMAN REACTION TO FOLLOW-UP
DEMARCHE TO PROMOTE RESTRICTIONS ON EXPORT
CREDITS/FINANCING TO IRAN

REF: STATE 81876

1. (SBU) Global Affairs officer delivered ref demarche to
Ursina Krumpholz, officer director of the German Ministry of
Economics' Foreign Trade Law and Law of the Sea Division, and
Ernst Roeder-Messell, deputy office director of the same
division, June 15.

2. (SBU) Krumpholz said the German Government's export credit
guarantees are issued to German firms to shield them from
foreign debt defaulters. Therefore, Germany does not issue
export credit guarantees to Iranian entities at all.
Nevertheless, the German Government would deny export credit
to a German firm that seeks to invest in Iranian entities
sanctioned under UNSCRs 1737 or 1747. In response to Global
Affairs officer's query of whether the German Government
would be willing to deny universally export credit to German
firms that seek to invest in Iranian Government entities,
Krumpholz said the German Government would be willing to
consider this, so long as the recipients in question are
Iranian state entities. Roeder-Messell added, also in
response to Global Affairs officer's query, that the German
Government screens export credit guarantee applications from
German firms. Furthermore, the German Government has a system
in place to detect links between the Iranian recipients of
German investment and Iranian Government entities.
Therefore, the German Government has the means to deny export
credit to a German investor who seeks, whether wittingly or
not, to invest in an Iranian Government entity.

3. (U) Post will report additional German response septel.
TIMKEN JR

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