BBC-Germany attacks US on Iran threat

[Guest guest]

T

Sat, 13 Aug 2005 12:17:33 -0700 (PDT)

BBC-Germany attacks US on Iran threat

 

 

BBC-Germany attacks US on Iran threat

 

German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder has warned the US to back away

from the possibility of military action against Iran over its nuclear

programme.

 

His comments come a day after President Bush reiterated that force

remained an option but only as a last resort.

 

Iran has resumed what it says is a civilian nuclear research programme

but which the West fears could be used to develop nuclear arms.

 

Germany, France and the UK have led efforts to end the crisis peacefully.

 

Mr Schroeder's rejection of force came at the official launch of his

party's election campaign.

 

The BBC's Ray Furlong - reporting from Hanover - says there was an

echo of his last election campaign three years ago, when his steadfast

opposition to the use of force against Iraq helped get him re-elected.

 

Applause

 

Mr Schroeder directly challenged Mr Bush's comment that " all options

are on the table " over the Iran crisis.

 

" Let's take the military option off the table. We have seen it doesn't

work, " Mr Schroeder told Social Democrats at the rally in Hanover, to

rapturous applause from the crowd.

 

Mr Schroeder said it remained important that Iran did not gain atomic

weapons, and a strong negotiating position was important.

 

" The Europeans and the Americans are united in this goal, " he said.

" Up to now we were also united in the way to pursue this. "

 

Mr Schroeder reiterates his views in an interview to be published

Sunday in the German weekly Bild am Sonntag, labelling military action

" extremely dangerous " .

 

" This is why I can with certainty exclude any participation by the

German government under my direction, " Mr Schroeder tells the paper.

 

Mr Schroeder was among Europe's sternest critics of the Iraq war,

causing a bitter rift with the US which poisoned relations between the

two countries.

 

His opposition, in tandem with that President Jacques Chirac's France,

led to US defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld's stinging attack on " old

Europe " .

 

The UN's atomic watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency,

backed a resolution this week expressing " serious concern " at the

resumption of the nuclear programme, and demanding it be halted again

at once.

 

Mr Bush's comments about the military option came in an interview on

Israeli TV.

 

The BBC's Jonathan Beale in Washington says the president wants to

send a clear warning to Tehran, although in reality the US already has

its hands full in neighbouring Iraq.

 

Mr Schroeder is lagging well behind his conservative rivals in the

German election campaign, but has been narrowing the gap in recent days.

 

In the 2002 poll, he came from behind to snatch victory after

anti-Iraq war feeling - and an outbreak of serious flooding in Germany

- helped him attract last-minute support.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/4149090.stm