Germany to Push for Joint EU Condemnation of Iran

EUbusiness:

Germany will ask leaders attending the EU summit this week to sign up to a joint declaration condemning the latest anti-Israeli outburst from Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, a government spokesman said on Monday.

The Iranian leader on Thursday called on Germany and Austria to host a state of Israel on their soil if they felt responsible for massacring Jews during World War II.

"Germany will urgently push for a joint declaration of condemnation from the European countries," spokesman Thomas Steg said.

Ahmadinejad's words were "terrible and unacceptable", he added.

Vice Chancellor Franz Muentefering said at the weekend that Germany would seek "political consequences" in the United Nations and the European Union over the Iranian president's verbal attacks on Israel. READ MORE

Ahmadinejad, who in October said Israel should be "wiped off the map", also described the Jewish state as a "tumour".

Paul Spiegel, president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, has described the comments as the worst anti-Semitic attack by a statesman since Adolf Hitler and called on Germany to sever diplomatic ties with Iran.

The EU summit takes place in Brussels on Thursday and Friday.