Bush, Merkel Take Firm Stance Against Iran

William Branigin, The Washington Post:

President Bush and visiting German Chancellor Angela Merkel said today they are pursuing diplomatic efforts to get Iran to end a suspected nuclear weapons program, which Bush said was "unacceptable" and a "grave threat" to world security.

After a lengthy private meeting in the White House, Bush and Merkel said they were working together to formulate a common approach to Iran by the world's major powers and were not yet ready to call for specific sanctions by the U.N. Security Council.

"I'm not going to prejudge what the United Nations Security Council should do," Bush told a joint news conference after the meeting. "But I recognize that it's logical that a country which has rejected diplomatic entreaties be sent to the United Nations Security Council."

He said the United States and other Western countries have "made it abundantly clear to the Iranians that the development of the know-how and/or a nuclear weapon was unacceptable. And the reason it's unacceptable is because Iran armed with a nuclear weapon poses a grave threat to the security of the world." READ MORE

Merkel described as "totally unacceptable" recent Iranian statements on Israel and the Holocaust and said that "we will certainly not be intimidated by a country such as Iran." She referred to comments by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad calling for the annihilation of Israel and characterizing the Nazis' mass killing of Jews in the Holocaust as a "myth."

The meeting came a day after the foreign ministers of Germany, Britain and France said Iran should be referred to the U.N. Security Council for violating its obligations under the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. The ministers said protracted negotiations with Iran reached a dead end this week when the Iranians broke International Atomic Energy Agency seals on uranium enrichment equipment at a nuclear facility near Isfahan. Iran said it was merely resuming nuclear research, but the IAEA said Iran planned to enrich uranium. The process of enriching uranium can produce fuel for nuclear reactors as well as material for nuclear weapons.

Iran has threatened to end all cooperation with the U.N. agency if it is referred to the Security Council.

After his White House meeting with Merkel, Bush declined to answer questions directly about the kind of sanctions that might be sought against Iran or whether they should include the threat of force.

"What we're doing now is beginning to lay out the strategy of what happens in the Security Council," Bush said. Countries such as China and Russia have their own opinions, Bush acknowledged. "Our job is to form a common consensus," he said. "Our job is to make it clear to all parties that it is in the world's interest that Iran not have a nuclear weapon."

Bush said that "we'll reach out to the Chinese and remind them, once again, that it's not in their interest or the world's interest for the Iranians to develop the capacity to . . . build a [nuclear] weapon and/or to possess a weapon."

Merkel said it was "absolutely crucial for the Iranians to see how serious we are about all of this." She added, "It does leave an impact if as large a number of nations in this world as possible makes it abundantly clear we are not accepting a stance that says, in effect, the right of existence of Israel is questioned. You're trying to lie to us, you're trying to cheat; this is something that we don't accept."

Merkel, 51, became Germany's first woman chancellor in November after an alliance led by her Christian Democratic Union party reached a coalition deal with the Social Democratic Party of Germany, headed by former chancellor Gerhard Schroeder. The deal culminated two months of negotiations following Germany's elections last September.

Merkel, making her first visit to the United States as German chancellor, said she hoped today's meeting would open "a new chapter" in U.S.-German relations. A chill had developed during the leadership of Schroeder, who strongly opposed the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003 and had an uneasy relationship with Bush.

But Merkel acknowledged she has her own differences with Bush, notably over the detention of prisoners at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Merkel has called for shutting down the detention facility.

Asked if he were willing to close it anytime soon, Bush defended the Guantanamo detention site as a "necessary" part of the fight against terrorism.

"Yes, she brought up the subject, and I can understand why she brought it up because there's some misperceptions about Guantanamo," Bush said. "Like the chancellor, I'd like to see a way forward there. The way forward, of course, is ultimately through a court system. I think the best way for the court system to proceed is through our military tribunals, which is now being adjudicated in our courts of law to determine whether or not this is an appropriate path. . . ."

Bush added, "Guantanamo is a necessary part of protecting the American people. And so long as the war on terror goes on, and so long as there's a threat, we will inevitably need to hold people" who would harm Americans. He said that "ultimately there is going to be an end, which is a legal system," once U.S. courts reach a decision.

Germany and other European countries need to "come up with convincing proposals as to how we ought to deal with detainees, for example, who do not feel bound by any law," Merkel said. "We need to, for example, find a reform of the international law in this respect, and I think the United Nations is indeed a good forum to do that."

Bush said he had started the meeting by asking all aides to leave the Oval Office so that he and Merkel could talk privately. Although Merkel stuck to German during the press conference, she speaks fluent English, as well as Russian.

The holder of a doctorate in physics and a former minister for the environment and reactor safety in the 1990s, Merkel is the first former citizen of communist East Germany to become chancellor following reunification.

Bush said in response to a question, "My first impressions in 45 minutes alone in the Oval Office were incredibly positive. She's smart. She's plenty capable. She's got a kind of spirit to her that is appealing. She loves freedom."

He said he was "particularly touched" by Merkel's account of growing up in East Germany and that there was "something uplifting" about talking to someone who had actually experienced the difference between tyranny and freedom.

A very postive step. A must read.