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Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Bush, Merkel, agree on Iran
2006-01-13
EFL
President Bush and German Chancellor Angela Merkel stood together Friday in urging U.N. intervention if Iran does not retreat from a resumption of its nuclear program. The world needs to "send a common message to Iran that their behavior ... is unacceptable," Bush said.
Was TGA there?

Merkel used similar words, and she also condemned statements by Iran's leader challenging Israel's right to exist. "We will not be intimidated by a country such as Iran," she said.

Bush assailed what he called Iran's efforts "to clandestinely develop a nuclear weapon, or using the guise of a civilian nuclear weapon program to get the know-how to develop a nuclear weapon."

Going through the motions of Taking the matter to the Security Council, as Germany, France and Britain recommended on Thursday, is the logical next step, Bush said. "We want an end result to be acceptable, which will yield peace, which is that the Iranians not have a nuclear weapon in which to blackmail and-or threaten the world," Bush said.

Both Bush and Merkel said they discussed Iran at length. In two years of difficult negotiations between European nations and Iran, "Iran refused every offer we made," Merkel said.

"It's very important for non-transparent societies to not have the capacity to blackmail free societies," Bush asserted.

Merkel took power last November after an extremely close and protracted race with Schroeder. Bush jokingly likened that race, which took almost two months to resolve, to his own victory in 2000 over Democrat Al Gore, which was decided only after weeks of suspense by a Supreme Court decision. "We didn't exactly landslide our way into office," Bush said.

Schroeder's opposition to the U.S.-led war that deposed Iraqi President Saddam Hussein so damaged the German's relationship with Bush that the president refused at times to speak to Schroeder on the telephone. Merkel, by contrast, is more in tune with Bush's conservative politics. Merkel also was to meet with members of Congress and planned to attend a ceremony at the newly renovated headquarters of the German Marshall Fund of the United States.
Considering the Socialists have most of the important cabinet positions, I figured Merkel would be impotent to make any significant actions. I'm still skeptical, but maybe, just maybe...
Posted by:Jackal

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