Bush and Merkel urge UN action on Iran
The camp on the US Navy base there is “a necessary part of protecting the American people”, Mr Bush said after their meeting at the White House.
In a joint news conference, Ms Merkel said she raised the issue with Mr Bush and she described it as one of the differences between the United States and Germany.
“There sometimes have been differences of opinion, I mentioned Guantanamo in this respect,” Ms Merkel said.
Mr Bush and Ms Merkel stood together though in urging UN intervention if Iran does not retreat from a resumption of its nuclear programme.
The world needs to “send a common message to Iran that their behaviour... is unacceptable”, Mr Bush said.
Ms Merkel used similar words and she also condemned statements by Iran’s leader challenging Israel’s right to exist. “We will not be intimidated by a country such as Iran,” she said.
Iran had earlier threatened to block inspections of its nuclear sites if confronted by the UN Security Council over its atomic activities.
The hardline president reaffirmed his country’s intention to produce nuclear energy.
With the support of Russia and China uncertain, however, they refrained from calling on the 15-nation council to impose sanctions and said they remained open to more talks.
British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, in an interview with the BBC, said Friday: “Obviously if Iran failed to comply, the Security Council would then consider sanctions.”
The White House declined to predict the stance of Russia and China on referring Iran to the Security Council. Spokesman Scott McClellan said he wouldn’t speak for other countries, but said it’s clear that the international community is speaking with one voice not to allow Iran to develop nuclear weapons.
He said a new phase of diplomacy has begun, and that Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns would be going to Britain, France and Germany next week to coordinate strategy.
Iran said that if it were confronted by the Security Council, it would have to stop cooperating with the UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency.
That would be, among other things, the end of random inspections, said Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki.
Iran has been voluntarily allowing short-notice IAEA inspections since 2003.
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad dismissed talk of possible sanctions and said Iran will “continue the path of production of the nuclear energy”.
“Iranian people do not allow foreigners to block their progress,” state-run radio quoted him as saying.
Tehran’s new ambassador to the UN nuclear watchdog said yesterday Iran would only enrich uranium on a small scale for research, but US think-tank Institute for Science and International Security warned that this could help Tehran acquire a bomb by 2009.
The think-tank said the research would close a major gap in Iran’s nuclear know-how. Iran denies seeking nuclear weapons.
The US and the European Union decided to push to refer Iran to the UN Security Council for possible sanctions after Tehran removed IAEA seals from its mothballed enrichment facilities this week and vowed to resume nuclear fuel research.
Western nations accuse Iran of pursuing atomic weapons under cover of a civilian energy programme. Tehran says it only wants to make low-grade enriched uranium for nuclear power plants.
Experts say the research Iran is planning now would not yield enough highly enriched uranium for a bomb, but would enable Iran to close the last gap in its nuclear fuel know-how.
