TABNAK, Oct, 12: Potzel has already worked at German embassy in Tehran during 2000—2004 as head of trade and economic sector.
“Unfortunately, bilateral ties between Iran and Germany have been severed due to international conditions and bipolar world. This bipolar world should be terminated through mutual cooperation between the two countries,” he said in a video he posted on his integral account.
“I am sure that relations between Iran and Germany will become better in future,” he said.
Germany has been one of Iran’s key crude customers in previous years. However, it had to stop purchasing Iranian oil due to international sanctions. Consequently, bilateral trade between the two sides decreased as well.
Potzel has already submitted his credetials to Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian on September 30.
In June 2023, Germany imported a significant shipment of crude oil or petroleum products from Iran for the first time in five years, according to the latest data by Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union.
Based on Eurostat data, Germany imported 69,737 metric tons (mt) of crude oil or petroleum products from Iran in March despite the U.S. sanctions that ban any trade of energy products with Iran.
The country's last import of Iranian crude was a 10,000-mt shipment in October 2018.
Germany's move comes at a time when the U.S. government has yet to make any changes to its unlawful sanctions policy against Iran despite its claim of seeking a diplomatic solution to ease tensions.
Moreover, Germany’s exports to Iran rose 12.7 percent year-on-year from January to November 2022 to around 1.5 billion euros ($1.6 billion), data from the country’s federal statistics office showed.
That exceeded the full-year volume for 2021 of around 1.4 billion euros, but remains a fraction of total exports from Europe's largest economy, which reached 1.38 trillion euros in 2021.
