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| Syria-Lebanon-Iran |
| Merkel compares Iranian threat to Nazis |
| 2006-02-06 |
| 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." As she was speaking, the board of governors of the United Nations' International Atomic Energy Agency, voted in Vienna to report Iran to the UN Security Council over concerns that it is secretly trying to develop nuclear weapons. Iran says its nuclear program is purely aimed at civilian energy production. But Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has not allayed concerns in the West and elsewhere with recent comments denying that the Nazi Holocaust happened and calling for Israel to be "wiped off the map". 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. Immediately after the vote in Vienna, a senior Iranian official announced Iran would immediately curb UN inspections of its nuclear plants and pursue full-scale uranium enrichment -- a step that could give it the ability to build the bomb. U.S. and EU leaders, aware that Russia, China and developing states on the IAEA board want to avoid a showdown with Iran, the world's No. 4 oil exporter, have said that reporting Tehran to the Council will not end diplomacy or trigger early sanctions. Rumsfeld, speaking after Merkel, also voiced his support for a diplomatic solution, but said Iran's nuclear program posed a grave threat. "The Iranian regime is today the world's leading state sponsor of terrorism," he said. "The world does not want, and must work together to prevent, a nuclear Iran." |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |
| #2 This is meant as a complement... U GO GIRL! |
| Posted by: BigEd 2006-02-06 16:37 |
| #1 pretty tough lady. |
| Posted by: liberalhawk 2006-02-06 11:43 |