The AfD often boasts of its philo-Semitism, more precisely: its support for Israel. The Israelis themselves distrust the party, whose honorary chairman, Alexander Gauland, once called the Holocaust “bird shit” and finds it difficult to state that the security of the Jewish state is part of Germany’s raison d’etat.
These days, the AfD has provided yet another reason to view its pro-Israel protestations as lies. In a small question on July 25, the AfD parliamentary group in the Bundestag pointed out that Iran is the third largest gas producer in the world after Russia and the USA and asked the federal government what it knew about corresponding deals with the mullahs.
As luck would have it, Iran is an obvious choice as a gas supplier in light of Russia’s energy war against Europe. However, under the condition that all sanctions against Tehran are dropped and the Vienna nuclear agreement is reinstated unconditionally. In short, like Vladimir Putin, Ali Khamenei uses gas as a means of political leverage.
A Germany that was dependent on Iranian gas and thus also financed the mullahs’ armament efforts directed against the Jewish state and its Arab neighbors could hardly claim that Israel’s security is part of its raison d’être.
The questioners themselves prove that the AfD’s request was meant to be suggestive. In addition to Gauland, they are Eugen Schmidt, who on August 15 called on the federal government on behalf of the parliamentary group to “pursue an Iran policy in German interests”. “German-Iranian cooperation in energy and trade would offer numerous starting points”.
Roger Beckamp, chairman of the German-Iranian parliamentary group, tweeted on August 24: “The nuclear agreement with Iran is within reach and thus more security and prosperity for the entire region, also to the advantage of Germany. I just hope Saudis & Israel don’t reignite.”
And René Springer, who in 2017 attested to the Tehran regime’s “internal regulatory and thus stabilizing function” and being a “mainstay of the international order”. The USA, on the other hand – Israel’s most important ally – is, according to Matthias Moosdorf, also an AfD questioner on the subject of Iranian gas, “as a driver of the conflict – as in Ukraine (and Georgia, Syria, Yemen, Libya, Iraq and Afghanistan etc.) real danger to world peace”. Khamenei couldn’t have said it any better.
In its response, the Federal Government refers to the decision of the European Commission on foreign energy policy, which states, among other things: “Before the summer, the EU wants to conclude a trilateral agreement with Egypt and Israel on supplying Europe with liquefied natural gas.” As for Iran, Tehran must first fulfill its obligations under the Vienna Agreement before the EU considers gas imports. Right.