Last year, barely a month after the UN Security Council had approved Res. 1747, instituting new sanctions against Iran, Austrian energy giant, OMV, signed the biggest energy deal to date ($22 billion) with the Islamic Republic.

The deal was the focus of attention at yesterday’s OMV annual shareholders’ meeting. Questioned about the soundness–moral and otherwise–of his company’s natural gas deal with Iran, OMV CEO Wolfgang Ruttenstorfer replied that “The details are to be negotiated” and there is “no foreseeable result” regarding the implementation of the deal, according to a Jerusalem Post article. OMV potentially faces obstacles and pressures from the UN and the U.S.

However, added Ruttenstorfer, things might change. According to the Post, Ruttenstorfer thinks “time is an ally.” Not, as you might hope, because he believes that with time a new, non-oppressive regime might rise in Tehran. No, the kind of political change OMV hopes for is in the U.S., so that OMV can proceed unhindered in its lucrative deal–even if such a deal will strengthen an oppressive regime with hazardous nuclear ambitions.

The Austrian government owns 31.5 percent of OMV. It’s regrettable that a nominal U.S. ally did not oppose OMV’s deal with Iran. For some in Europe, evidently, the real threat to European interests is not Iran but America.