Brussels, 28/08/2009 (Agence Europe) - On Thursday, the Israeli prime minister completed his visit to Berlin, the last stage in his European tour. During a press conference attended by Chancellor Angela Merkel, he asserted: “The first issue we discussed was Iran. The development of nuclear weapons by the Iranian regime, whose true nature was exposed in the recent Iranian elections, is something that threatens Israel and threatens the region, and threatens the peace of the world”. Israel expects the international community to be aware of this threat and “I am delighted”, Netanyahu said, “that Ms Merkel has calculated the extent of the threat”. He placed emphasis on US commitment to deal with the dossier but, he stressed, “time is running short”. Netanyahu also plans to differentiate between Iran's acquisition of nuclear weapons and the arsenal held by his own country. In response to a question during the press conference, he said that “such a regime is a threat to the peace of the world. It also happens to threaten the existence of my country, whereas we are not threatening the existence of anyone”. Ms Merkel, for her part, rejects the Israeli explanation of the difference between the Israeli-Palestinian dossier and the Iranian dossier as, she says, they are both based on similar political concerns. She did, however, assert that Iran was exposing itself to further sanctions in the energy and finance fields unless it showed it was ready to cooperate on its nuclear programme by September. China and Russia's support will be sought for common sanctions decided by the UN Security Council.
On the Palestinian issue, Mr Netanyahu reiterated his commitment to seeking a negotiated solution, stressing, as in London the day before, that there was a need for Palestinians to recognise Israel as a “Jewish state”, underlining the fact that the founder of the state, Theodore Herzl, did not take this as meaning a Jewish state “in the religious sense (…) but in the sense of Israel, the Jewish state, being the nation-state of the Jewish people. There are non-Jews living there as well, and they enjoy full civil rights - full, equal, individual rights as few do in a very, very wide radius in the Middle East”. In his comments reported in the international press, Netanyahu said he hoped talks would be reactivated in one or two months, denying however the existence of an agreement with Mr Mitchell, US Special Envoy, for suspending the construction of buildings to the advantage of the settlers. “There are no grounds for such rumours. There is no decision or agreement. We are, however, seeking to reduce differences but reports of an agreement are just not true”, he said. (F.B./transl.jl)