Another "internal conflict" between the US and Germany over Cuba

globinfo freexchange

For one more time, the German government condemned - in a parliamentary discussion - the economic, commercial and financial embargo (bloqueo) of Cuba imposed by the US, for more than half a century.

In a relative question by the Socialist MP Wolfgang Gehrcke, Michael Roth, Minister of State for Europe at the Federal Foreign Office, pointed the annual vote of Germany at the UN general conference: "As in previous years, European Union voted one more time for the end of the embargo of Cuba by the US", Roth said.

In other questions by Gehrcke, the Minister clarified the position of the government concerning the economic embargo and its consequences. According to Roth, there is a high agreement among the European governments, concerning the condemnation of this policy by Washington. He said that there are only a few partners of the US, at international level, who support such a policy, referring to the annual voting at the UN general conference.

Answering to another question by Gehrcke, about the reasons of condemnation of bloqueo by Germany, Roth said that the German government believes that the US measures are illegal from the perspective of the offshore consequences. At the same time, Berlin appears to be willing to support politically and legally the German companies affected by the sanctions of the US authorities.

According to various reports at the German press, Deutsche Bank and Commerzbank are under the US supervision because of their activities in Cuba. Additionally, an article in NY Times concerning Commerzbank, the second largest German bank, was describing an extrajudicial agreement, containing a fine of 500 million dollars. In exchange, the US Department of Justice would have to quit from any charge. According to Roth, the German government did not interfere in those cases because the banks did not ask for help.

Finally, the Leftist party Die Linke announced new initiatives to prevent the apply of the US embargo against Cuba in the EU territory.

Source:

http://prensa-rebelde.blogspot.gr/2014/11/bloqueo.html

It is obvious that the relations between the two allies have been damaged irreparably due to NSA interceptions, but it seems that there is much more than that because it appears that Germans are not willing to drop Russian energy supply ... While the US rush to cut any connection with Russia (http://failedevolution.blogspot.gr/2014/06/us-deep-state-tries-to-cut-its-few-ties.html), planning dangerous war games, they expect from their allies to do the same. As long as Germans insist to be dependent on Russia, they will probably considered as an ostensible ally by Washington. Of course, the antagonism in economic level doesn't make things better: http://failedevolution.blogspot.gr/2014/07/who-is-considered-ostensible-ally-by-us.html