“While there have been a number of journalists raising probing questions about the details of the agreement, government officials and members of parliament have expressed overwhelming support,” she said.
Both German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier and Chancellor Angela Merkel have announced they will visit Tehran in the fall.
Benjamin Weinthal, a Berlin-based research fellow with the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), said that Germany and other European countries have simply “relegated Israel’s security, European security, and human rights to an inferior status in order to advance their country’s short-term business profits.”
While there has been significant criticism of German Economic Minister Sigmar Gabriel for rushing to visit Tehran with a business delegation just days after the agreement was signed, this irritation seemed to stem “mainly to the timing, and the trip as such did not seem to have an impact on the overall favorable public opinion of the agreement,” Berger said.
“Some German negotiators have expressed skepticism about Iran’s willingness to implement the agreement fully but believe nonetheless that without an agreement, Iran would in short order build a nuclear bomb,” she added.
France: According to Simone Rodan-Benazquen, director of AJC Europe and AJC Paris, “in France, even in political spheres, [the Iran deal] has not been a major issue,” but “in terms of public government response, there is generally slightly more caution in France than in the rest of Europe.”
Indeed, during the nuclear negotiations, France took a harder line on Iran than its European counterparts – and the U.S. – at times.
The French government “turned out to be the real hawk among the Western powers involved in the Iran talks,” Weinthal said.
“In short,” he added, “a socialist French government, to its credit, internalized deeply the dangers of a nuclear-armed Iran and sought to twist the U.S negotiating arm to secure greater concessions from Iran.”
But Weinthal said the French government, under pressure from the business community, eventually relented and conformed to the Obama administration’s position in the negotiations.
Shortly after the nuclear deal was signed, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius visited Tehran because French companies like Airbus, as well as carmakers Peugeot Citroën and Renault, have been seeking to renew business ties with Iran that had been cut off by economic sanctions.
* * * * *
Dr. Moshe Kantor, president of the European Jewish Congress, an umbrella group that represents 42 Jewish communities and more than 2.5 million Jews across the continent, told JNS that “the details of the agreement are extremely troubling,” pointing out that “on almost all of the major sticking points, Iran appears to have come out stronger, and this deal will prove to be a prize for radicalism.”
But while the debate in the U.S. heats up ahead of the Sept. 17 deadline for Congress to decide whether to support or reject the deal, the lighter discourse in Western Europe – coupled with the eagerness of governments and businesses there to forge closer ties with Tehran – indicates “European fatigue and mass cowardice about confronting terrorism and rogue regimes,” FDD’s Weinthal said.
The Gatestone Institute’s Westrop echoed Weinthal’s assessment, saying that Europe “simply does not understand Iran” and “fails to recognize the dangers of Shi’ite Islamism and the inevitable violence that will follow if we embolden and enrich a regime that, like ISIS, is fanatically chasing apocalyptic judgment.”
“Because Iran pursues its theocratic ideals through less overtly harrowing means,” he added, “Europe falsely perceives a distinction.”
(JNS)