EXCLUSIVE: President Biden’s government has been maneuvered by German Chancellor Angela Merkel on critical security fronts, Richard Grenell, the former acting director of national intelligence for the Trump administration, told Fox News.
“You have to give it to Chancellor Merkel: she outwitted Joe Biden in just three weeks. Merkel has made it clear that she does not want to side with communist China and capitalist America, and the 10,000 U.S. troops withdrawal that Trump announced earlier, reversed and got the government of Biden to stop enforcing Nord Stream 2 sanctions, ”Grenell said.
Last week, Biden froze the plan to withdraw U.S. troops from the Federal Republic. In December, Congress passed legislation – the National Defense Authorization Act – that includes sanctions targeting companies and individuals involved in the Nord Stream 2 project.
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The Nord Stream 2 agreement with Russian President Vladimir Putin’s regime will transfer Russian gas to the Federal Republic via a pipeline running under the Baltic Sea. Critics say the project will ensure that Germany becomes dependent on Russia’s energy needs – a major adversary to the US and Europe.
For Grenell, who was the first openly gay person to hold a U.S. cabinet post and also served as ambassador to Berlin from 2018 to 2020, the message is that you can have a ‘Germany First’ policy, if your businesses completely involved with China, and you do not have to take sides between communist China and America.
“Merkel always wanted to return to the table where she sits opposite a weak American president,” he continued, adding that she did not like the Trump administration’s ‘transaction diplomacy’.
According to Grenell, then-President Donald Trump told Merkel: “I do not blame you for wanting policies that benefit Germany, but you can not blame me for staying for America.”
Merkel’s government has come under heavy criticism during Trump’s tenure for allegedly providing a release charge to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) by not promising to spend 2% of its GDP on defense.
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‘From the German perspective, they get the pipeline [to import Russian natural gas] and do not have to pay their NATO commitment, “Grenell said. Europe wants an American president who will not demand that they pay their bills. ”
For security and intelligence experts like Grenell, the addiction of the Merkel administration to Russian gas, its policy of neutrality towards the Chinese Communist Party and the failure of its NATO commitments means that “Merkel is taking a quick step away from the West under Biden.”
He warned to return to Europe as usual: “Europeans want to go back to the days when Americans asked nicely for something, the Europeans ignored the request, and everyone went to eat with a dainty bottle of wine.”
“The Germans got a free pass from the Biden government not to join the West if it did not help them personally,” he said.
Grenell said Berlin was eager to “start normalized trade with Iran”. Germany is the largest European trading partner of the Iranian regime. In 2019, Merkel’s government celebrated the 40th anniversary of the Islamic Revolution of the Iranian regime in Tehran’s embassy in Berlin.
Germany’s cordial relations with the government of Iran, the leading state sponsor of international terrorism, according to the Obama and Trump governments, raise questions about Merkel’s relations with China’s Communist Party, especially in light of the allegations of the genocide of Beijing against Muslims.
In a 26-year Politico article entitled ‘Merkel stands with Xi on avoiding cold war blocs’, the journalists write,’ Merkel on Tuesday rejected the calls for Europe to choose parties between the USA and China in a nod to Chinese President Xi Jinping’s plea a day earlier. ‘
Chinese President Xi Jinping’s government is accused by former US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and current US Secretary of State Antony Blinken of carrying out genocide against China’s Muslim Uighur minority population.
Germany did not label the Chinese Communist Party’s persecution of the Uighur community as a genocide.
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Asked about Grenell’s criticism and whether Germany agrees with Blinken’s statement that China is carrying out a genocide of its Uighur citizens, a Merkel spokesman wrote in an email to Fox News: “We will not comment. do not deliver on the statements. ‘
Dolkun Isa, President of the World Uyghur Congress, said“Merkel has avoided discussing this issue in public for some time – a fact that has not come to the attention of the Chinese propaganda machine.”
A German Foreign Ministry spokesman declined to comment explicitly on Fox News ‘questions about Grenell’s criticism, citing Foreign Minister Heiko Maas’ comments to German stores and on social media. He did not want to call China’s behavior against the Uighur people a genocide.
Maas wrote on Twitter “To meet China’s challenge to fair competition, especially for human rights, we need a union with the US. We can achieve much more than the US and Europe on the same side of the field. is. “
Both Merkel’s office and Maas declined to answer Fox News’ questions regarding calls for Germany to cancel the Nord Stream 2 project.
Maas emphasized continued talks with Russia rather than robust economic sanctions against the Russian government for human rights violations. He told the Funke Media Group in early February: “Close coordination between the partners is important. The announcement by President Biden that the approach to Russia will be coordinated with the allies again is therefore an important signal.”
Germany’s largest circulation magazine, Bild, unveiled in 2019 Emily Haber, the German ambassador to Washington, as she aggressively campaigned for Congress in favor of Russian President Putin’s Nord Stream 2 project.
According to Bild, a congressman said people were “shocked” by Haber’s actions because she was “unequivocally on Russia’s side”.
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Haber declined to answer a Fox News query.
During Grenell’s time in Berlin, he accomplished what previous ambassadors could not do, according to longtime observers of European power politics. “The way we got a Hezbollah ban in Germany was two years of constant pressure and prioritization of the issue. That was the only way the Germans moved. The momentum will not continue throughout Europe unless Biden’s government is doing more than delivering lips and using its leverage, and let’s be honest, it will make some people scream, ‘You are mean,’ ‘he said.
France opposed an EU-wide ban on the whole of the Hezbollah organization, while Britain, Germany, the Netherlands, Latvia, Slovenia, Serbia, Estonia and Lithuania banned the Lebanese Shiite militia.
In addition to Israel, the United States and Canada, Muslim-majority countries such as Sudan and Bahrain, along with the Arab League and the Gulf Cooperation Council, classify the whole of Hezbollah as a terrorist entity.
A State Department spokesman told Fox News on Tuesday that “the United States is committed to the relationship between the United States and Germany and to the need for coordinated action to address global challenges.” ‘
“The Biden government places alliances at the center of U.S. foreign policy, and we will work to adapt it to the world we face, which will make us stronger and more secure,” the spokesman said. “The Biden government has made it clear that we need the support of strong and capable allies such as Germany, and that the restoration and modernization of alliances also means that we will continue to ask our allies to share more of the global burden. “as well as their NATO capability goals. When we work with other countries that share our values and goals, we make ourselves and our allies safer.”
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“As a spokesperson [Edward] Price said Nord Stream 2 was designed to increase Russia’s leverage on allies and partners, undermining trans-Atlantic security. The United States will continue to work with our allies and our partners to ensure that Europe has a reliable, diversified energy supply that does not undermine collective security. “As President Biden has made clear, the Nord Stream 2 pipeline is a bad thing,” they added.
Benjamin Weinthal reports on human rights in the Middle East and is a fellow of the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies. Follow him on Twitter @BenWeinthal