The forum faces sharp criticism from human rights experts and the NGO, “Stop the Bomb”. A spokesperson for the NGO said, “This banking forum is scandalous. German bankers and politicians in Frankfurt are rolling out the red carpet for a regime which is responsible for the flight of millions from Syria and Iraq.”
The director of the Monetary and Research Institute in Iran, who is also listed as a representative of the Central Bank of the Islamic Republic of Iran, is scheduled to deliver the opening address.
Officials of the German Green Party are also scheduled to speak.
A leading Iranian dissident and public intellectual in Germany stated that, “Historically examined, the party, the Greens, have always since their founding in 1980 supported terrorists… It is obvious that they continue to go this way. They idolized Ruhollah Khomeini [the founder of the Islamic Republic of Iran] and actively helped the mullahs sit firmly in the saddle today.”
The spokesperson for Stop the Bomb also slammed federal German agencies involved in the Iran business forum, saying, “The list of speakers shows that the initiative for boosting Iran’s business comes from the government. Institutions such as the Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin) and the Federal Office for Economic Affairs and Export Control (BAFA) that are responsible for risk control of foreign trade, are involved in propaganda for trade with Iran.”
However, the BaFin spokesperson said, “as a supervisory agency, we take a neutral position,” and the spokesperson for BAFA stated, “as the central agency responsible for permits, BAFA implements, in the framework of political guidelines, the security and foreign policy interests of the Federal Republic of Germany in the field of foreign trade. BAFA also regularly and neutrally informs, at a series of events from different institutions, about current legal developments and proceedings. BAFA contributes to sharpening, as much as possible, the awareness of existing regulations and restrictions in foreign trade law.”
A senior fellow for The Israel Project, based in Washington, said, “Iran hasn’t stopped being a threat to international peace and security. It’s a pariah state, ruled by a fanatical mullah regime with malign nuclear ambitions, and should be isolated as the world’s largest exporter of terrorism. She added, “Rather than attending cushy meetings in the West, Iranian officials should be indicted for crimes against humanity.”
It has been said that doing business with Iran is doing business with the IRGC, and large European banks have avoided business deals with Iran because of this, as well as the volatility of Iran’s financial system.
