Simon Wiesenthal Center--Siemens’ Announced Pullout From Iran: A Blow to Mullahtocracy

January 27, 2010

The Simon Wiesenthal Center lauded the announcement by Siemens, Germany’s engineering conglomerate, that it will no longer do business with Iran.

“It is significant this decision was announced on the eve of the 65th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, the death camp which provided slave laborers for that firm during the Nazi Holocaust,” said Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, a leading Jewish Human rights NGO and longtime critic of Siemens ties with Iran, in a statement released in Jerusalem. “If this also means that if Siemens will also desist from any future third-party deals with Iran, we will drop our opposition against Siemens bids for future projects in California and elsewhere in the U.S.,” he added. Last year Siemens lost out a $300 million light rail project in Los Angeles following intense protests led by pro-Iranian democracy and Jewish groups

“We hope the Siemens move will pressure other German companies including Thyssen/Krupp, to follow suit and will also bolster the efforts of Chancellor Merkel, French President Sarkozy, who along with the United States are seeking to tighten sanctions against Tehran’s Holocaust-denying, nuclearizing regime that is seeking to finish Hitler’s vision by openly threatening Israel with annihilation,” Rabbi Cooper continued.

“The anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz also marks International Holocaust Memorial Day and the Wiesenthal Center urges Russia—who suffered 20 million dead at the hands of Nazi Germany during WWII-- and especially China to close ranks with other nations and institute sanctions against Iran before it's too late. We should never accept as business-as-usual policy that enables this dangerous and corrupt regime to threaten its neighbors and beats and jails its own citizens for the sin of seeking democracy and freedom,” Cooper concluded.

The Simon Wiesenthal Center is one of the largest international Jewish human rights organizations with over 400,000 member families in the United States. It is an NGO at international agencies including the United Nations, UNESCO, the OSCE, the OAS, the Council of Europe and the Latin American Parliament (Parlatino).

For more information, please contact the Center's Public Relations Department, 310-553-9036, join the Center on Facebook, www.facebook.com/simonwiesenthalcenter, or follow @simonwiesenthal for news updates sent direct to your Twitter page or mobile device.

Rabbi Cooper is reachable at +972524-316-448 0r US cell 1-310-210-9750