Iran row: Germany debates military option

Stefan Nicola, Monsters & Critics:

Germany`s grand coalition government is bickering over whether Iran`s nuclear ambitions should be stopped with a military strike.

Over the past few days, leading Social Democrat politicians have criticized conservative Chancellor Angela Merkel after she made comments that implied the possibility of a military strike against Iran at a security conference in Munich earlier this month. READ MORE

'Military options have to come off the table. We as Social Democrats have a clear position on that,' party Chairman Matthias Platzeck said.

Merkel, during a speech in Munich, compared recent remarks by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, in which he denied the Holocaust and called for Israel to be 'wiped off the map,' to the rise of Nazi leader Adolf Hitler in the 1930s. She said Tehran should not expect to receive any tolerance from Berlin.

'We have learned from our history,' Merkel said, referring to a time when Europeans slept during Hitler`s ascendancy, which eventually led to the systematic killing of some 6 million Jews. 'Now we see that there were times when we could have acted differently. For that reason Germany is obliged to intervene at an early stage... to make clear (to Iran) what is OK and what isn`t.'

Social Democrat Secretary General Hubertus Heil told the Tagesspiegel, a Berlin-based newspaper: 'I expect that the chancellor will not steer a different foreign policy course than we Social Democrats have done for years... There can`t be a military option.'

The course of the past years has been one of military abstinence. Merkel`s predecessor in office, Gerhard Schroeder, railed against the Iraq war in the 2002 election campaign and won despite a poor initial response.

German armed forces are active in several foreign peacekeeping missions and in 1998 sent bombers to aid the war in Kosovo. Given their history, however, most Germans deeply resent taking part in war, and such a decision would almost certainly lead to the defeat of any party in power.

Conservative politicians have defended Merkel`s speech, and said no option should be categorically factored out of the difficult Iran equation.

Eckart von Klaeden, a Christian Democrat policy expert, told the daily Passauer Neue Presse that the international community had to show unity in the conflict with Iran.

'It has to belong to the strategy of the international community to leave Iran oblivious about possible reactions to uncooperative behavior,' he said. 'They have to know that going back to the negotiation table... is in their own interest.'

Von Klaeden added the Social Democrats were using the topic to round up votes for the six state elections coming up this year.

Merkel seems to have no issues with the most important Social Democrat involved, Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, who said both politicians are on the same page when it comes to Iran.

'Chancellor Merkel and I see negotiations as the path for a diplomatic solution which we are committed to proceed with,' Steinmeier said Sunday evening in an interview with the German ZDF public television network, a day before he was to travel to Israel and the Palestinian territories. Asked about a military option against Iran, he said: 'We shouldn`t answer questions that aren`t posed... But at the moment negotiations have reached a dead-end.'

According to the BBC, Iran resumed full-scale uranium enrichment Monday.

Tehran announced its intention nine days ago, when the United Nations` nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, referred the Islamic Republic to the U.N. Security Council for possible sanctions. The Security Council will meet at the beginning of March.