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EURO 2008 - Business Ranking Iran

The most important commercial partner of Iran in Europe is Italy, followed by Turkey, that will keep its position due to a 2.25 Billion Euro deal signed last year. Germany ranks third, it might, however, be the secret European champion, conducting more and more of its commerce via third party countries.

France, the Netherlands, Spain, Russia and Greece hold further top positions. Is the trade volume calculated per capita, the current football titelholder Greece is also European champion in economically supporting the Mullah dictatorship in Iran. The host countries of the Euro 2008 do everything in their power to ascend to top positions. The Iranian regime refers to Austria as its "gateway to the European Union. OMV, Austria's biggest company listed in the stock exchange with the Austrian state holding more than 30 % of its shares, plans to enter into a 22 Billion Euro agreement with Iran. Switzerland is not just ahead of its Euro 2008 hostpartner as to football skills: The Swiss power company Laufenburg signed a deal with the Iranian Gas Export Company for a yearly delivery of 5.5 Billion cubic metres of natural gas in April 2008 with a an estimated total volume of 18 Billion Euros. For the Swiss foreign ministry Iran is “one of the most important commerce partners of Switzerland in the Middle East."

So what? Why shouldn't countries trade with Iran, some might ask. But Iran is not just some arbitrary regime. The Islamic Republic of Iran is a an islamic dictatorship exerting domestic and international terror for almost 20 years. At the same time it is obviously developing nuclear weapons. Labour unions are banned and industrial action is put down as brutally as the students’ protest movements.

The systematic persecution of minorities like the Kurds and the Bahai, the execution of homosexuals as well as the constant repression against women that do not obey the islamic code of conduct, are main features of this regime. Iran regularly threatens to exterminate Israel and holds conferences on the denial of the holocaust. Concerning the Middle East conflict, the policies of the mullahs' dictatorship of the mullahs does not aim at an improvement of the situation of the Palestinians, a two-state-solution or any sort of compromise but declaredly at the extermination of Israel. This position is neither new nor exclusively held by president Ahmadinejad. The destruction of Israel is an offical policy of the Islamic Republic since 1979. It is pursued by radical followers of Ahmadinejad as well as conservatives and those mullahs, that are refered to as pragmatics and reformers in the west.

Every deal with this regime is an economic, political and propagandistic success for the dictatorship of the Ayatollahs. Those who trade with Iran finance the repression of the Iranian population, the propaganda for the extermination of Israel and the armament of the mullahs. Those who conduct negotiations and a "dialogue" with this regime stab that Iranian opposition in the back, that fights for a democratic, constitutional and secular Iran for decades.

The campaign STOP THE BOMB therefore stands up for broad economic sanctions against the Iranian regime and for a dialogue with the Iranian opposition.