All options open on Iran: US
Mouthing inanities: US President George Bush (L) and German Chancellor Merkel speak during a joint press conference at the guesthouse of the Federal Republic, the Meseberg Palace, in Meseberg north of Berlin, Germany yesterday. Picture: AFP
Thursday, June 12, 2008
UNITED STATES President George W Bush yesterday backed Europe-led diplomacy to convince Iran to abandon its suspect nuclear drive but warned he has not ruled out using force.
"My first choice of course is to solve this diplomatically. All options are all the table, but the first choice is to solve this problem by working closely together," said Bush after talks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
He expressed support for a European package of diplomatic and economic rewards — put together by Berlin, London, and Paris — if Iran's leaders halt uranium enrichment, which can be a key step towards atomic weapons.
"We'll see what choice they make," he said, one day after the European Union agreed to crack down on Iranian banks.
"We'll give diplomacy a chance to work."
Merkel said diplomatic pressure had already shown signs of paying off, highlighted international cooperation in squeezing the Islamic republic and warned Tehran would face more sanctions if it rejects the incentives plan.
"If Iran does not meet its commitments, further sanctions will have to follow," she said.
"If you look at the situation in Iran then you see that these efforts could be successful but that also requires the international community to act in a unified manner, that means in the European Union as well as at the UN Security Council."
Iran denies Western suspicions that its nuclear programme hides an atomic weapons push and has made its own diplomatic overture — which does not include halting uranium enrichment.
Bush met Merkel as part of what he has proclaimed his last trip to Europe before he steps down in January, a voyage that began in Slovenia last Monday and takes him to Italy, the Vatican, France, and Britain.
The US president is still widely unpopular over the Iraq war that Germany, France and Russia fiercely opposed, as well as his resistance to European-favoured strategies for battling climate change.
"I hope that with regard to climate change we will take constructive steps forward in Japan" where the Group of Eight industrialised nations will meet in July, Merkel said after hosting Bush in Meseberg outside Berlin.
Bush urged Germany to step up its commitments in Afghanistan, and said there was little he would have done differently in Iraq.
AFP
"My first choice of course is to solve this diplomatically. All options are all the table, but the first choice is to solve this problem by working closely together," said Bush after talks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
He expressed support for a European package of diplomatic and economic rewards — put together by Berlin, London, and Paris — if Iran's leaders halt uranium enrichment, which can be a key step towards atomic weapons.
"We'll see what choice they make," he said, one day after the European Union agreed to crack down on Iranian banks.
"We'll give diplomacy a chance to work."
Merkel said diplomatic pressure had already shown signs of paying off, highlighted international cooperation in squeezing the Islamic republic and warned Tehran would face more sanctions if it rejects the incentives plan.
"If Iran does not meet its commitments, further sanctions will have to follow," she said.
"If you look at the situation in Iran then you see that these efforts could be successful but that also requires the international community to act in a unified manner, that means in the European Union as well as at the UN Security Council."
Iran denies Western suspicions that its nuclear programme hides an atomic weapons push and has made its own diplomatic overture — which does not include halting uranium enrichment.
Bush met Merkel as part of what he has proclaimed his last trip to Europe before he steps down in January, a voyage that began in Slovenia last Monday and takes him to Italy, the Vatican, France, and Britain.
The US president is still widely unpopular over the Iraq war that Germany, France and Russia fiercely opposed, as well as his resistance to European-favoured strategies for battling climate change.
"I hope that with regard to climate change we will take constructive steps forward in Japan" where the Group of Eight industrialised nations will meet in July, Merkel said after hosting Bush in Meseberg outside Berlin.
Bush urged Germany to step up its commitments in Afghanistan, and said there was little he would have done differently in Iraq.
AFP
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