Middle East Politics and Export Credits

(Washington Post, Berlin, 31 October 2018) At the end of last year, the Danish Export Credit Agency had approved eight Iranian banks for credit lines or guarantees and vowed to resist U.S. pressure to dismantle those ties. However, Denmark is now leading a push for new E.U. sanctions against Iran, after its intelligence agencies blamed Tehran for a foiled plot to assassinate an Iranian dissident on Danish soil. In a darkly ironic twist, Iran has condemned the Saudi killing of dissident Khashoggi even as it has a long track record of pursuing operations against opponents living abroad itself. The Jerusalem Post on 6 November noted that the German government defied US sanctions on Iran’s clerical regime on Monday 5 November, by continuing to insure its companies with export credit – 911 million euro for 58 companies.