JERUSALEM—German Chancellor Angela Merkel said that Germany shared Israel’s goal of preventing Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons and said all Iranian forces must leave Syria.
Speaking at a joint press conference with Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the King David Hotel in Jerusalem on Thursday , Merkel said: “We are very convinced and strongly share Israel’s position that everything must be done to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons. Where we are not always united is on the path to this goal.”
She also said that all Iranian forces must leave Syria and reduce its influence over the country “toward zero,” although she acknowledged that this is “a difficult project”.
The German Chancellor added : “There is absolutely no question that the fact that Iranian forces are standing near the Golan Heights is a threat to Israel.” She also confirmed that she had spoken with Russian President Vladimir Putin about the issue.
The press conference took place after a bilateral meeting between the two leaders and the annual meeting of senior Israeli and German Government ministers.
Asked about potential Israeli-Palestinian talks Merkel said: “We favour and stand for the project of a two-state solution. There can be many solutions, of course, but I still think that two states is the most sensible solution. In this context, I expressed on Germany’s behalf the concern regarding the settlement policy, which makes efforts to achieve a two-state solution more difficult.” The Chancellor said Netanyahu asked her to “continue to encourage the Palestinian side to come to the negotiation table,” and she pledged to call Abbas in the near future to “ask him several questions, including about the situation in Gaza.”
Netanyahu paid tribute to the friendship between the two countries and repeated his opposition to the nuclear agreement with Iran. ‘’The deal put billions of dollars in the hands of the leading sponsor of terrorism in the world and the leading aggressor in the Middle East – Iran,’’ he said. ‘’This money unfortunately did not go to improve the lives of Iranian citizens. Instead, it went to funding a war machine, Iran’s war machine, that is bent on conquering the entire Middle East,’’ he added.
He noted that ‘’Iran’s aggressive activity also extends to Europe,’’ saying that Israeli intelligence gave European services the information that Iran’s services were planning terrorist attacks on European soil by Iranian diplomats.’’
Netanyahu said he was ‘’very glad’’ to see that an Iranian diplomat was recently arrested in Germany for a failed bombing plot in Paris.
The Israeli premier also thanked Merkel for her strong stance against anti-semitism, as well as her standing up for Israel’s security. “Anti-Semitism throughout the ages has always been preceded by slander, [but]what has happened now is that the slanders that were directed against the Jewish people are now directed against the Jewish state,” said Netanyahu, adding a call to combat anti semitism “not only when it’s directed at individuals, but also when it is directed at the Jewish State.”
Earlier on Thursday, Netanyahu and Merkel attended a roundtable meeting with Israeli and German business people, where the sides discussed the potential for bilateral cooperation in innovation by creating joint platforms for the development of technologies in the fields of – inter alia – water, green energy and agriculture.
