BERLIN —‘’Iran calls for our destruction, but it’s also seeking nuclear weapons to carry out its genocidal designs,’’ Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in Berlin as he met Monday with German Chancellor Angela Merkel. The meeting, as part of Netanyahu’s European trip that will also bring him to Paris and London, focused on the growing Iranian threat.
Netanyahu is seeking to persuade the three main European countries to agree to tougher measures against Tehran following United States President Donald Trump’s withdrawal from the nuclear deal signed with Iran in 2015, better known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). Germany, France and Britain are signatories of the deal.
“We agree that the question of Iran’s regional influence is worrying, especially for Israel’s security,” Merkel said in a joint press conference following her private meeting with with Netanyahu.
She added that “we will exert our influence in such a way that Iran is pushed out of this region,” and that her country will take a “very close look at Iran’s activities in the region and seek to contain it.”
Netanyahu said that not only is Iran’s destabilizing activities throughout the Middle East a concern for Israel, but also Germany as the prospect of more refugees fleeing the region could end up in the country.
Iran wants to “basically conduct a religious campaign in largely Sunni Syria but try to convert Sunnis,” said Netanyahu.
“This will inflame another religious war; this time a religious war inside Syria and the consequences will be many, many more refugees and you know where exactly they will come,” he said.
Netanyahu added that in addition to its nuclear ambitions, Iran was trying to “conquer the Middle East.”
“It is doing so in Syria, it is doing so in Yemen, and it is doing so in other places,” he said. Iran, Netanyahu added, was trying to entrench ground, air and naval forces in Syria to “Israel’s backdoor with the specific goal of attacking us.”
“We cannot accept that,” Netanyahu said. “Iran should leave Syria, all parts of Syria,” he added.
The Israeli premier acknowledges his difference with Merkel on the nuclear deal but said the two countries share the same goal.
“We respect the policies of Chancellor Merkel. We have some disagreements, as you can see, on occasion, but they’re not really on goal, they’re more on the question of the method,” he said.
“Basically, the problem with this deal, as I saw it, was that it says to Iran: In exchange for not enriching uranium for a single bomb today, you can enrich unlimited amounts of uranium for a 100- to 200-pound bomb within seven to 10 years. Today, it’s about seven years,” explained Netanyahu.
“I thought this was a very bad deal because it gave Iran the capacity to develop advanced centrifuges 40 times more effective in the intervening years. So they could have an unlimited enrichment capacity in a few years. That’s not a good deal.”
‘’We have shared with the German government, German specialists, the information that we retrieved from a secret atomic archive that Iran has. We think that it’s important, as Chancellor Merkel has said, that the IAEA investigate Iran based on this new information, a lot of new information that Israel has now provided the IAEA as well,’’ he said.
According to British daily The Times, ahead of his European visit, Netanyahu shared with Israel’s allies some of the top-secret files obtained by the Mossad Israel’s intelligence agency, proving the military nature of Iran’s nuclear program.
According to the report, among the trove of files making up the Iranian nuclear archive was a memorandum, dated to 2001, in which the Iranian Defense Ministry authorized the country’s military to enrich uranium from 3% to over 90% – military-grade levels that suggest Iran had every intention of building a nuclear weapon.
However, during the meeting in Berlin Merkel defended the accord, saying that “at least for a certain time, that Iran’s activities are under control,” but agreed that a supplementary deal on Iran covering its ballistic-missile program and regional behavior was needed.
“We believe that this can be achieved with tough negotiations,” said Merkel.
The German leader has also announced that she will visit Israel in October.
In his remarks, Netanyahou als touched upon ”special” the relationship and alliance between Israel and Germany which he stressed ‘’ is an excellent one.’’ ‘’It has historic foundations, because of the unique experience that we have undergone here obviously, and the commitment that you and previous German governments, but you sustained it with great vigor and great conviction, your commitment to Israel’s security, the security and the future of the Jewish state, is deeply appreciated by me, by the people of Israel.’’
He continued, ‘’Germany is one of the great economies of the world; Israel is the leading, among the leading innovation nations in the world. And the combination of technology and industry is extremely powerful, so I am very, very happy that we decided to add a business delegation to the upcoming meeting of our governments, so that we can have these benefits of technology, of knowhow, of innovation accrue to both our countries and both our peoples.’’
Netanyahu also commended Merkel’s’’very strong stance against antisemitism ‘’which is deeply appreciated.’’
After his Berlin visit, which was marked by strict security measures, the Israeli Prime Minister is travelling to Paris for a meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron also focused on the Iranian issue.
French President Emmanuel Macron was set to meet Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday on the second leg of the latter’s European trip amid deep differences over how to contain Iran’s ambitions in the Middle East.
It will be the third meeting of the two leaders in Paris since last July, and while they agree on the threats posed by Tehran’s missile projects and foreign interventions, they differ strongly on the response.