German Chancellor Angela Merkel likened Iran's nuclear program on Saturday to the threat posed by Germany's Nazi regime in its early days, saying the world must act now to prevent it building the atom bomb.Addressing the annual Munich security conference, she said there had been complacency in other countries as Adolf Hitler rose to power. "Looking back to German history in the early 1930s when National Socialism (Nazism) was on the rise, there were many outside Germany who said 'It's only rhetoric -- don't get excited'," she told the assembled world policy makers.
"There were times when people could have reacted differently and, in my view, Germany is obliged to do something at the early stages ... We want to, we must prevent Iran from developing its nuclear program."
Post-war Germany, conscious of the Nazis' crimes, has made support for Israel's existence a pillar of its foreign policy. Speaking to an audience that included U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, Merkel had particularly blunt words for Ahmadinejad: "Iran has blatantly crossed the red line," she said.
"I say it as German chancellor. A president who questions Israel's right to exist, a president who denies the Holocaust cannot expect to receive any tolerance from Germany."
Merkel said Iran was a threat to Europe as well as Israel. But she also said diplomacy rather than military action was the way to deal with the threat. "Diplomatic avenues need to be exhausted. We need to hold our nerve, go step by step," she said.
| I dunno if diplomatic avenues have been exhausted, they seem more terminal to me. |