The coronavirus epidemic in Iran inspired Europe, and especially France, to take advantage of the situation and try to enter Iran at a time when it is sick and weak.
At the time of the crisis, Iran is not only helped by the Chinese, which I already wrote about in my columns. In line after the PRC are the French and the EU. France once held special positions among all European countries in relations with Iran. Ayatollah Khamenei flew to Tehran by Air France flight, and brought the whirlwind of the Islamic Revolution from Iran to the USA, but brought French automobile giants Renault, Peugeot to the country and generally showed the French great economic respect.
In 2015, after Iran and the Six reached an agreement on a nuclear program, President Rouhani, after a 12-year pause in relations, brought large French business to the country - Renault, Total, Airbus (under the growl of conservatives).
In 2016, France and Iran signed contracts worth about $ 15 billion, and the benefit from the contracts was on the side of France: Iran bought 118 Airbus aircraft worth about $ 25 billion, French companies Bouygues, Vinci, Paris ADP received contracts for the development of three Iranian airports, and Total, in exchange for this, was supposed to buy Iranian oil from 150 to 200 thousand barrels per day. (And in November 2016, Trump and Mr. Mnuchin came to the White House, immediately launched the anti-Iranian campaign.)
With Trump's anti-Iranian rhetoric, the reformist Iranian spring ended and a conservative winter struck.
After the destroyed nuclear agreement, the French position was, let's say, traditional: the language of diplomacy ornately asked both sides (Iran and the USA) to find a compromise, de facto - France washed its hands with other European partners, fearing the wrath of the United States and freezing many of the promised projects.
In the fall of 2018, Iran plunged into economic collapse.
On June 5, 2019, at the Tehran airport, Iranian conservatives arrested two French scientists from the most respected Sciences Po - Faribe Adelkhah and Roland Marchal. To understand the level of confrontation between France and Iran, which is generally unusual for these two countries, it should be noted that both worked for the influential state academic CNRS (French National Center for Scientific Research, which is under the patronage of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the French Ministry of Defense and so on, in fact - the elite of French intelligence). Such an arrest suggests that Iran (more precisely, the IRGC inside Iran) decided to raise rates to the maximum.
"I am sorry that the Iranian Revolutionary Guard uses our two researchers as hostages in the negotiations between Iran, France and the USA and pushes to suspend scientific and nuclear cooperation between Tehran and Paris until both academics are released," voiced the official position Paris in an interview with reputable Le Point magazine Jean-Francois Bayard (their CNRS counterpart) in late October 2019.
Iran was not very scared - only six months later, it exchanged one of the hostages, Marshall (an expert on African countries), leaving Adelha (an anthropologist specializing in the religious elites of Afghanistan, Iran and Iraq) more “valuable” for trading in Evin prison, despite the raging the country's coronavirus epidemic and President Macron’s efforts to free her.
On March 20, 2020, both sides exchanged prisoners: under Marshal, the French released the Iranian engineer Jalal Ruhollah Nejad, who spent a year in a French prison for trying to transfer American technology to Iran for military purposes (this is the official charge).
In fairness, it is worth noting that Ruholla Nejad was arrested in Nice in early 2019, and in May 2019, a court in France approved his extradition to the United States, where he faced a tremendous sentence. That is, the French were the first to aggravate - the French academics from CNRS were arrested in June 2019.
Obviously: if the exchange of prisoners took place, it means that secret diplomacy between France and Iran worked hard all this time and some results should be visible. Are there any Yes. And they are very interesting.
At the end of March, EU chief diplomat Josep Borrell called on the international community to send humanitarian aid to Iran and overcome concerns regarding US sanctions. "We must confirm that humanitarian exchanges ... food ... medicines and medical equipment ... are not under US sanctions ... because many people think that if they participate in such humanitarian projects, they can become targets for sanctions." .
“We will provide assistance worth more than € 20 million to meet the needs of the health sector and provide care for the most vulnerable people,” said Borrela spokesman Peter Stano. Humanitarian aid distribution channels are the UN High Commissioner for Refugees and the Pasteur Institute in Tehran.
Perhaps Europeans are testing new channels of interaction with Iran in this way.
In 2020, China should launch a digital yuan, thereby creating alternative payment systems for US sub-sanction countries, and perhaps Europe will take part in this as an important part of the Eurasian project. This is the thought of those for whom the glass is half full.
In March 2020, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres made a public appeal to UN member states "to ignore the inhuman US sanctions against Iran and demand their cancellation." In addition to the € 20 million assistance announced by the EU, France, Germany, and the United Kingdom pledged to provide Iran with additional € 5 million assistance through WHO and other UN agencies.
“COVID-19 is devastating Iran,” writes Zarif, the head of the Iranian Foreign Ministry, and official data confirm this: over the course of the epidemic, more than 2,500 people died, about 36,000 were infected (statistics daily change in the direction of growth), like the whole world, the epidemic undermines the economy of a country that is already barely breathing.
US has gone from sabotage & assassinations to waging an economic war & #EconomicTerrorism on Iranians — to #MedicalTerror amidst # covid19iran.
This even "exceeds what would be permissible on the battlefield."
STOP aiding WAR CRIMES.
STOP obeying IMMORAL & ILLEGAL US sanctions. pic.twitter.com/pN6z2kbg8M
Iran has not yet achieved the main goal - lifting the sanctions, and it is unlikely that under President Trump this will become a reality. Despite the work of the entire diplomatic corps of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Iran in the person of Javad Zarif and the speech of President Rouhani, the United States remains indifferent to calls for mercy during the epidemic. President Trump is a pragmatic businessman, and not Teresa’s sister, therefore, even for US humanitarian assistance initiatives to Iran, he put forward a demand: “OK, but the only thing they need to do is ask for it.” And on March 17, 2020, at the height of the epidemic, he introduced a new series of sanctions against the Iranian petrochemical sector.
While the United States defiantly makes it clear that there will be no relief, a “good European policeman” appears on the scene with a proposal for humanitarian assistance and tries to go through the closed door of the Islamic republic.
Mike Pompeo has repeatedly spoken out that Iran must allow international organizations to enter its territory in order to provide “vital details about the outbreak of coronavirus.” The international community does not trust either China or Iran in epidemic data. The Chinese did not allow WHO into the country. But the Iranians can let the Europeans offer them help in the fight against the epidemic.
- Iranian Foreign Minister Zarif and Joseph Borrel, February 3, 2020
- AFP
- © ATTA KENARE
In March, a French delegation from the non-governmental organization Doctors Without Borders flew to Iran. Two cargo planes arrived in Tehran from Bordeaux in coordination with the liberal wing of the Iranian authorities - President Rouhani and Foreign Minister Zarif. A group of nine people, including emergency doctors, hugged happily with the Iranians who met them and immediately went to Isfahan to establish their own field hospital for the treatment of seriously ill patients.
Grandiose plans - a temporary hospital with 50 beds - were not destined to come true. Already on Monday, Advisor to the Minister of Health Ali-Reza Wahabzadeh wrote to President Trump in his favorite media: “I thank MSF (Doctors Without Borders. - Yu. Yu. ), But with the implementation of the national mobilization plan against coronavirus we do not need to establish foreign hospital beds , and their presence is canceled. "
"I'm sorry, what?" - you ask. And the French also asked again. “The Ministry of Health was not informed in advance, we were faced with a fait accompli. Today we have 10 thousand hospital beds and 10 thousand beds in field hospitals, why do we need 48 extra beds? ” - explained the press secretary of the Ministry of Health Kianush Jahanpur. And the French immediately, the next day sent home.
Iran’s position regarding Western assistance can be formulated with the words of the heroine of the novel by Ilf and Petrov: “Do not teach me how to live, better help me financially.”
Iranian Ambassador to France Bahram Kassemi spread his arms and posted a poetic fragment from the Persian poet Saadi that all human beings are parts of the same body and when one part suffers (apparently, these are Iranians. - Yu . Yu. ), Others cannot find peace (this is obviously about the French. - Yu. Yu. ).
The conservatives answered Kassemi, their other liberals and the West. Hossein-Ali deputy Haji Deligani, a representative of Isfahan, in an interview with local Alef news site: “The Iranian medical community does not approve of this action, and our doctors consider it an insult. Doctors of Isfahan say that the purpose of the entry of Doctors Without Borders is unclear, and the scope and scope of their work also raises many questions. ”
Iran has a good memory of help from the West. The chief editor of the Kayhan conservative publication, Hossein Shariatmadari, recalled that it was France that sold Mirage planes to Iran for bombing Iran during the Iran-Iraq war, and in the 1980s sent a humanitarian consignment of donated blood infected with HIV (hundreds of people, including children) were infected.
Europe, sitting at the head of Iran, regularly measures the pulse and temperature of the patient so as not to miss the most important moment.
“By supporting Iran’s request for a $ 5 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the European Union is taking a stance against the position of the Trump administration,” Julien reassures program director for the Middle East and North Africa at the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) Barnes-Dacey (Julien Barnes-Dacey).
Until September 19, 2019, the IMF was headed by Frenchwoman Christine Lagarde, the former Minister of Economy and Finance of France, a landmark figure who today rules the European Central Bank. Lagarde, among other things, is known for saving Greece from default in 2010, and on October 1, 2019, the IMF was headed by Bulgarian economist Kristalina Georgieva, a graduate of Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a creature of the United States.
For those who are half empty, it’s obvious that a loan of $ 5 billion, given the current rate of the rial and the state of the economy, could turn into Iran’s last gasp and technical default, predicted by Brian Hook, the US State Department’s special envoy for Iran a few months ago.
The loan request was submitted by the government of Rouhani under the pretext of combating coronavirus, which provoked a fierce reaction of conservatives: they are sure that IMF lending rates will finish the patient, and not help him get on his feet.
The author’s point of view may not coincide with the position of the publisher.