Haskel tells Europe to invest in progressive Mideast economy
European leaders should invest in a progressive Middle Eastern economy, MK Sharren Haskel (Likud) said as she prepared to represent Israel at a major economic conference in Berlin.
“European states are at a crossroads and need to decide: Either they continue to provide economic support to aggressive states, or they join the countries protecting the free world and world order,” Haskel said Friday, ahead of her participation at Germany’s leading cross-sectoral economic conference, “The Day of German Business.”
The annual two-day conference brings together political and business decision-makers from across Europe, including representatives from the so-called “Group of 10,” the wealthiest member-states of the International Monetary Fund.
Haskel, Israel’s sole representative at the conference, is set to meet with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and German Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen on Wednesday.
“The world is divided today into two parts: aggressive states including Iran, Russia, Turkey and Venezuela on one side, and on the other side, those states protecting the free world and world order including the United States, Israel and the Arab Gulf states,” said Haskel.
“When Europe centers its investments around aggressive state actors, it is essentially supporting terror and states destabilizing the world order,” she added.
Haskel was invited to participate in the conference by German MP Paul Ziemiak, chairman of the governing CDU Party’s youth organization, after she was ranked in March by the extra-parliamentary group Israel Freedom Movement as the Knesset member most dedicated to advancing the values of individual liberty and the free market.
“European states must stop sitting on the fence, as history always repeats itself. When the US sat on the fence in the first and second world wars, and delayed assuming the role of the world’s ‘peace policeman,’ millions were slaughtered,” Haskel said.
“The world currently stands a moment from disaster. The next world war is at our doorstep and European states must decide and take a side: Whether they prefer their economic interests and continue to invest in aggressive states, or to help in founding a world order by investing in the development of the new Middle East economy.”
Haskel’s plea comes amid increasing Iranian efforts to lobby European states to offset the economic consequences caused by the US withdrawal from a landmark nuclear deal between Iran and five other world powers in May 2017.
Earlier this month, a German Economy Ministry spokesperson said Germany and its European Union allies were considering establishing a payment system that would permit the continuation of business transactions with Iran, even after a new round of harsh US sanctions targeting Iran’s energy, trade and financial sectors go into effect in November.