UNSCR 1747/OECD: GERMAN REACTION TO FOLLOW-UP

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