Germany's federal export control office has cleared the way for an engineering company to build three plants for Iran to liquefy natural gas, a government spokesman said Tuesday.
The Federal Office of Economics and Export Control concluded after a 12-month investigation that plans by Steiner-Prematechnik-Gastec to build equipment for converting natural gas to a liquid do not violate sanctions against Iran.
"Because the equipment would be built here and then sent to Iran, that work does not fall under any existing sanctions involving Iran," said Holger Beutel, a spokesman for the government office.
Liquefaction plants are used to condense gas extracted from reserves underground into a liquid form, making it easier to transport and store.
Jonathan Betkerle of the Mideast Freedom Forum Berlin, a nonprofit supported by Jewish organizations and Iranians in exile, said the government's approval is an unnecessary and harmful compromise on sanctions meant to punish Iran's governing regime.
"The Steiner deal just shows that existing sanctions have been ineffective," Betkerle said. He said that his organization would try to lobby German politicians to help overturn the government decision.
But Beutel said that approval by the control office was made on legal grounds, and not as a matter of policy or political opinion.
"Our role is merely to decide whether this proposal falls within existing EU and German law, and it accomplishes that," Beutel said.
Under Chancellor Angela Merkel, Germany has cut back trade with Iran as part of Western-led efforts to force Tehran to suspend its uranium enrichment program.
German exports to Iran shrank to euro3.2 billion (US$5.04 billion) in 2007 from euro4.3 billion (US$6.77 billion) in 2006, according to figures released in February by the Economic Ministry.
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