German tapped to head INSTEX withdraws after Israel controversy

A German senior diplomat who had been designated to run INSTEX, a mechanism to allow trade with Iran despite US sanctions, will not assume the post, it emerged Friday, following controversial comments he made on Israel.

German's foreign office told AFP that Bernd Erbel, 71, had informed it "that he is not available for personal reasons".

Germany's top-selling newspaper Bild said Erbel's appointment was halted after it reported on controversial comments the ex-ambassador to Baghdad and Tehran had made in recent interviews.

Bild slammed "two scandalous appearances" in which Erbel had given long interviews to former public radio journalist Ken Jebsen, whom the tabloid-style paper accused of being "a conspiracy theorist and anti-Semite".

Erbel had said that Israel represents "a foreign body in the region" and had been founded "at the expense of another people that lost their homeland".

He also said, according to the Bild article, that "the Palestinians are the victims of our victims. Quite simple".

Bild also charged that Erbel had broadly shown a pro-Iran attitude and played down, for example, militancy by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards and their allies in the region.

The newspaper said in a rare English-language article on its website that "after Bild contacted Erbel regarding dubious interviews he had granted previously, he was forced to resign".

Germany, Britain and France in January founded the Instrument in Support of Trade Exchanges to facilitate barter trade with Iran to get around US sanctions that block financial transfers.

However, INSTEX is not yet operational.

Berlin remains in talks with London and Paris on filling the post of INSTEX managing director, which needs confirmation from the institution's supervisory board.

Wife of American held in Iran pleads for Trump's help
Washington (AFP) Aug 8, 2019 - The wife of Xiyue Wang, an American serving 10 years on espionage charges in Iran, called Wednesday for President Donald Trump to step up efforts to free him.

Chinese-born Wang, a doctoral candidate in history at Princeton University, was researching Iran's Qajar dynasty when he was imprisoned in August 2016.

"I implore Iran, the US, my own country China and other members of the international community to come together and find a way to secure the release of this innocent man," Wang's wife Hua Qu told a news conference in Washington marking the third anniversary of his arrest.

"This case will not be automatically resolved," she said. "They need to come to the negotiating table, to speak to each other, to engage in a dialogue."

She cited the recent example of US rapper A$AP Rocky, whose detention in Sweden after a public brawl sparked the ire of Trump, who dispatched his envoy for hostage affairs for the trial.

"President Trump offered his intervention in the superstar A$AP Rocky's case," and he "quickly got released," Qu said.

"I believe the ordeal of my husband and other unjust detention cases deserve the same level of attention."

Qu said Iran had fabricated spying allegations against her husband and was using his research as a "pretext" to pressure the US.

The US and Iran have not had diplomatic ties since 1980, and while there was an improvement in relations under Barack Obama, they have worsened under Trump.

The president withdrew the US from a 2015 deal with Iran aimed at curbing its nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief, imposing punishing economic restrictions on Tehran.

Iran responded 12 months later by suspending some of its commitments under the pact and has seized multiple ships in the Gulf this year.

Tehran shot down an American drone in June, with Trump saying he called off retaliatory air strikes at the last minute.

Washington says it has since downed one, possibly, two of Iran's unmanned aircraft, which the Islamic republic has denied.

Qu said Trump's Iran posture had not helped her husband, who has been "criminalized for his American citizenship."

While thanking the US for its support, she noted that no progress had been made in three years and that her requests for high-level talks remained unanswered.

"I desperately need them to do more," Qu said.

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Iran 'favours' talks despite Trump snub
Tehran (AFP) Aug 6, 2019
President Hassan Rouhani said on Tuesday that Iran favours talks with the US if it lifts sanctions against the Islamic republic, despite his top diplomat turning down a meeting with US President Donald Trump. Rouhani said "peace with Iran is the mother of all peace" and "war with Iran is the mother of all wars" as he defended a landmark 2015 nuclear deal between Tehran and world powers. "Iran favours talks and negotiations and, if the US really wants to talk, before anything else it should lift ... read more