Visit of President Bush to the United Kingdom
June 2008

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11 June 2008
Bush, Germany's Merkel Seek Common Front in Dealing with Iran

By Michael Buchanan
Staff Writer

Related:
 • President Bush Participates in Joint Press Availability with Chancellor Merkel of Germany

Washington -- German Chancellor Angela Merkel and President Bush, following a meeting in Germany, expressed a strong commitment to presenting a common U.S.-European Union policy on Iran.

Merkel said Iran should live up to its promise of nuclear openness or face additional consequences. “If Iran does not meet its commitments, then further sanctions will have to follow,” she said at a joint press conference with Bush June 11 in Meseberg, north of Berlin, during Bush's eight-day trip to Europe.

The sanctions are part of an intense diplomatic initiative to compel Iran to halt enrichment of uranium, a process that could be used in the production of nuclear weapons. At the same press conference, President Bush said that while all options are on the table, “my first choice is to solve this diplomatically. And the best way to solve it diplomatically is to work with our partners.”

Merkel cited a recent report from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) as support for tightening and expanding existing sanctions. The report, released May 26, found Iran in violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions ordering the country to stop its uranium enrichment program and criticized Iran for its unwillingness to allow IAEA inspectors full access to nuclear facilities.

Bush said he welcomed the European Union's unified support for further sanctions on Iran, and Merkel said she saw them as an effective tool when the international community takes them seriously. “We in the European Union will do everything to see to it that this actually happens,” she said.

Both leaders, however, expressed concern for the people of Iran under the limiting effects of the sanctions. “The Iranian regime has made a choice so far, and it’s a bad choice for the Iranian people. The Iranian people deserve better than being isolated from the world,” Bush said. “The message to the Iranian government is very clear: that there’s a better way forward than isolation, and that is for you to verifiably suspend your enrichment program.”

The wide-ranging discussion turned to the promotion of peace in the Middle East and elsewhere, and Bush thanked the German people and Merkel in particular for contributions in Afghanistan and Iraq.

The talks also dealt with other long-term goals related to environmental issues, which the two leaders will continue to address at future multinational meetings. “I’m looking forward to the G8 Summit in Japan,” Merkel said, calling progress toward binding emissions targets a success. Bush also called for binding strategies to be employed against climate change that include all nations that emit large volumes of carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas associated with climate change. “That’s not just European nations -- that’s the United States, along with China and India,” he said.

The G8 nations are Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States. The 2008 G8 Summit will be held in Japan July 7-9.

Bush called his travels and engagements a “sprint to the finish” as he bids farewell to Merkel and other European leaders. He will be in Rome June 12 and will conclude his visit in Belfast, Northern Ireland, on June 16. He also will stop in Paris and London.

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