Controversial German politician to head UN agency accused of helping Iran with tech linked to nuclear program

Iranian diplomats were reportedly seen last month holding talks at the United NationsIndustrial Development Organization (UNIDO), a sprawling, byzantine Vienna-based bureaucracy. UNIDO provides funds and technology which critics say enable the world’s worst state-sponsor of terrorism, Iran. 

UNIDO’s incoming director is a German politician who made racist remarks disparaging African men in 2016. Gerd Müller, the director general designate of UNIDO, apologized for his 2016 remarks while Germany’s development minister for what he called his “not very nuanced” statement.

UNIDO’s board in July recommended Müller to serve as the next director general of an agency so marred by corruption, inefficiency and incompetence that the United Statespulled the plug on its support during the presidency of Bill Clinton.

Müller still serves as Chancellor Angela Merkel’s development minister and is slated to take over from the outgoing Chinese director-general.
The U.S. withdrew from UNIDO in 1996 because, according to Brett D. Schaefer of the Heritage Foundation, it concluded that the agency “lacked a clear purpose and was generally ineffective.”
UNIDO’s delivery of dual-use technology, which can be used for both military and civilian purposes, to the Islamic Republic raises unsettling issues for the agency and its soon-to-be director.

Daniel Roth, the Research Director for United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI), told Fox News that, “we should be clear that UNIDO is not merely a waste of money and a hotbed of corruption, like many other UN agencies. What makes UNIDO unique among UN agencies is that it is actively albeit inadvertently helping to supply U.S. and Western adversaries with important technology that can be used for military and indeed terrorist purposes. Its endemic lack of transparency and oversight simply exacerbate the problem.”

He noted that UNIDO has implemented projects in some of the world’s worst rogue regimes, including Cuba, Venezuela and even North Korea, which are all under U.S. sanctions.

A former diplomat who was accredited to all international organizations in Vienna, including UNIDO, who asked to remain anonymous, called for U.S. action and Congressional hearings into UNIDO: “The US and its allies should independently visit UNIDO HQ Vienna and examine these projects and depose the personnel.”

The veteran diplomat cautioned, “Any state which does not want rogue regimes to acquire or refine their WMD systems should care about UNIDO and why it employs 2,500 personnel worldwide. [They] must care about what agents/nationals from North Korea, Iran OIC [Organization of Islamic Cooperation]  and NAM [Non-Aligned Movement] are shuffling as employees between, UNIDO, IAEA [International Atomic Energy Agency] and the CTBTO [Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization.]

UANI’s Roth said Müller’s task is that he “simply must suspend all current Iranian projects. Given the IRGC’s [Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps] tentacular and growing reach in every domain of the Iranian economy, it is simply impossible to discount the inevitability that the IRGC will acquire dangerous tech obtained through UNIDO projects.”

“UNIDO currently has 11 projects in Iran worth $17.5 million…. Right now, UNIDO is currently funding a project titled, ‘Promoting and Upscaling Innovative SMEs in the Islamic Republic of Iran,’ focusing on “improving competitiveness of ICT [information and communications technology] start-ups and SMEs [small and medium-sized enterprises] in Iran,” Roth said.

“Despite the innocuous-sounding title, there are several obvious points of concern.”  Noting that the agreements stemmed from a 2019 letter from Mohammad-Javad Azari Jahromi, who is the Iranian minister of information and communications technology.  

“Jahromi is a key player in Iran’s brutal war against dissident voices and plays a key role in repression and censorship…Jahromi also served seven years, from 2002 to 2009, in Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence, one of the most brutal agencies under the regime and responsible for torture and execution of journalists, ethnic and sexual minorities, and other dissident voices…and despite all this (including being sanctioned by the U.S. for internet censorship,) UNIDO sees fit to respond to − and indeed implement − this man’s request,” Roth said.

Germany is Tehran’s most important European trade partner and has faced accusations for decades about its lax policy of transferring military-applicable technology to Iran’s regime leading some to express concern over Müller’s new position. 

When Fox News asked Müller about the project, a spokesman of the German Development Ministry responded, “Supporting or financing a transfer of dual-use technology to Iran is not intended by the project you mention, ‘Promoting and Upscaling Innovative Small and Medium Enterprises in the Islamic Republic of Iran.’ UNIDO does not have the financial means to pay for material investment goods, for their transport, or to directly transfer technologies to beneficiary countries.”

The spokesman added that “Its objective is to strengthen the entrepreneurial ecosystem and the technical capacities of support services to civilian ICT-related start-up and scale-up enterprises in Iran. These businesses include internet service platforms that are comparable to companies such as Amazon or Uber in other countries.”

With Müller in Merkel’s cabinet, the German government’s Federal Office for Economic Affairs and Export Control green-lighted the transfer of dual-use technology to the Tehran regime that was incorporated into Iranian-produced chlorine-laced missiles that poisoned Syrians, including children, in 2018, as Fox News reported.

A State Department spokesman didn’t answer a Fox News question on whether the U.S. had made clear to Müller that UNIDO must stop agreements it has with Iran and other outlaw regimes but did answer a question about a recent UNIDO/IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) agreement signed in June. The U.S. is the largest single donor to the atomic agency.

“We are aware of a technical cooperation agreement between the IAEA and UNIDO which allows for information sharing and would refer you to the IAEA for further questions on that agreement,” the spokesperson said while also noting the US is not part of UNIDO and “therefore does not provide assessed funding.”

“The United States supports the IAEA’s important work in the areas of nuclear safeguards, safety, security, and the peaceful uses of nuclear energy and maintains management controls to ensure U.S. funding advances these critical priorities.”

When asked how Müller plans to address UNIDO’s deficiencies, his spokesman sent Fox News a July 12 statement posted on the German Development Ministry’s website. “The battle against COVID-19 and climate change demands a greater commitment of industrialized countries toward developing countries. We need more innovations and investments as well as global technologies and knowledge transfer,” said Müller.

Despite several requests for comment a UNIDO spokesman did not respond to Fox News queries as to the charges leveled against the agency. Fox News understands that Müller will outline his plans for UNIDO during the final week of August, it is far from clear if the Iranian projects will be cancelled.

https://www.foxnews.com/world/controversial-german-iran-nuclear-program

Afghanistan: Majority of Americans blame Biden poll shows

A majority of Americans disapproved of US President Biden’s handling of the calamitous and ill-planned military retreat in Afghanistan. Cacophony meanwhile reigns in Washington as politicians, including Biden, try to find someone to blame for the disaster.

According to a new poll, conducted by The Trafalgar Group, some 69 percent of Americans disapproved of how Biden handled the US troop withdrawal. Overall, only 23 percent approved, but almost 40 percent of Democrats polled thought he had done a good job.

Some 89 percent of Republicans on the other hand, said they disapproved of how Biden had handled the US retreat, with only 7 percent saying they approve.

The Taliban humiliated the American leader by easily taking over the capital of the country, Kabul, as the US troop withdrawal neared its end. Scenes of chaos erupted at the airport in Kabul as many tried to flee. President Biden had previously said that the Taliban would never achieve this. In the wake of this huge failure, Biden’s speech “was full of finger-pointing and blame,” said CNN’s Jake Tapper.

Instead of paying attention to Afghanistan, the Biden administration has been focusing on declaring anyone who opposes Covid vaccines, masks, social distancing or lockdowns a “potential terror threat”, ignoring the freedom of choice. Dubbed a “National Terrorism Alert” by NBC News, the warning also insisted that anyone who questions the veracity of the 2020 election could also be a terrorist.

But ironically the Biden administration “likely created a newly-weaponized Islamic Caliphate in Afghanistan after abandoning troves of military equipment, vehicles, and weapons amid its desertion of the US embassy in Kabul,” noted Infowars. The Associated Press also concluded that “the ultimate beneficiary of the American investment turned out to be the Taliban. They grabbed not only political power but also US-supplied firepower — guns, ammunition, helicopters and more”.

The Taliban now find themselves flush with American-supplied materiel, without having to pay for any of it.

https://freewestmedia.com/2021/08/17/afghanistan-majority-of-americans-blame-biden-poll-shows/

German politicians of the Left Party congratulate the Taliban and rejoice over the death of German soldiers

The left-wing politician Bijan T., apparently a member of the Socialist Unity Party (SED) successor party in Hamburg, congratulated the Islamic gang of murderers in Afghanistan on Facebook. Freelance journalist David Peter documented the disgusting salute to the Taliban, which has since been deleted. In his disgusting tweet, the leftist not only celebrated the Taliban’s victory, but also considers the death penalty for “collaborators” understandable.

Freelance journalist David Peters shared screenshots of the now-deleted, absolutely insane Facebook post on Twitter. In it, the leftist rejoices that the Afghan people now have “their freedom and sovereignty” back and can finally start rebuilding the economy “in stable political conditions”. Even more sickening is his understanding that the Islamic slayers will take revenge. T. posted:

“Of course, the Taliban can only be advised to deal mercifully with the collaborators who have worked as translators etc. together with Nato troops. To publicly execute these people would only be detrimental to the international recognition of the new government and could result in sanctions. On the other hand, it has to be said that in many countries of the world the death penalty for treason still applies today and it would therefore also be completely understandable if the collaborators were punished by the Taliban after a due process of law.”

As if these atrocities were not enough, T. further tweets in his lunatic leftist posting:

“I congratulate the Afghan people on their victory over the foreign occupiers (especially for each and every one of the 37 German soldiers killed by them) and wish them a prosperous future in peace and freedom!”

The newspaper Bild-Zeitung also reports on the lunatic leftist from Hamburg:

https://journalistenwatch.com/2021/08/17/hamburger-linker-taliban/

Germany: Muslim “mourners” beat up cemetery boss because they were not allowed to drive their cars across the cemetery

Once again, the whole “cordiality” and cultural idiosyncrasies of our Muslim fellow citizens were shown at the Hallo cemetery in Essen: Once again, a Muslim funeral “got out of hand”. The head of the cemetery got to suffer the Muslim hatred in the form of a beating.

According to the police, the “incident” had already happened on July 1. Mourners had demanded that one of them – allegedly a senior citizen – be allowed to drive through to the Islamic burial ground, several hundred metres away and at a high altitude. The cemetery employee – as reported behind the paywall by the newspaper WAZ, it is the head of the cemetery – is said to have referred to the cemetery regulations and to have “stubbornly” refused to raise the barrier “exceptionally”. The advice that the responsible Islamic undertaker would offer a shuttle service between the main entrance and the Islamic burial ground especially for mourners with handicaps obviously did not work.

According to the police, several waiting mourners got out of their vehicles. “A riot broke out. The head of the cemetery was first insulted and called a “racist”. In order to express the Muslim demands, the head of the cemetery was beaten up. He was hit on the head and upper body. Following the migrant attack, the thugs allegedly opened the barrier themselves and then drove to the Islamic burial ground by car.The police are investigating on suspicion of assault and trespassing. The Christian Democratic Union (CDU)-led municipality of Essen also confirmed the “incident” and stated that it would deal with it and prepare the necessary consequences.Presumably another lip service, as incidents related to the Islamic burial ground, which is one of the largest in Germany, have been accumulating in recent months. In spring, for example, Muslim visitors to the cemetery attacked a board member of the neighbouring model aircraft sports club Essen Nord Ost. The Muslims had felt disturbed by the model planes. They therefore spat in the man’s face and threatened and insulted him in a usual manner. The fact that residents of the Muslim cemetery in the Stoppenberg and Schonnebeck districts regularly complain about driveways full of parked cars can be considered a triviality in this context.

https://journalistenwatch.com/2021/08/16/muslimische-trauergaeste-friedhof/