Germany has huge trade with Iran....

Getting Germany to implement sanctions against Iran will be very hard...

Chancellor Angela Merkel can warn companies all she wants to stop doing business with Iran. Yet commerce between German firms and the Islamic Republic keeps expanding, as businesses here continue longstanding relationships with Tehran.

In the first four months of 2010, trade between Iran and Germany totaled nearly $1.8 billion, up 20% from the same period last year, according to the German-Iranian Chamber of Commerce in Hamburg.

Germany and Iran "have a trading relation which is around 140 years old," said Michael Tockuss, a leading member of the lobbying group. "There are a large number of very well established business relations that go far beyond just the present."