These words were written as Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert arrived in Berlin for a two-day visit to Germany.
The main topic of discussion with his counterpart Chancellor Angela Merkel was no secret. “The issues that will be raised in Germany are vital to Israel’s security,” Olmert told reporters on the plane to Germany. The subject was Iran.
To be sure, other items of bilateral interest were on the agenda as well. For example, a new, upgraded relationship between the two countries is evolving. Indeed, as a visible demonstration of the fact, Merkel will visit Israel next month, along with a large contingent of her cabinet, in honour of the Jewish state’s impending 60th anniversary. There has even been mentioned the possibility of an historic joint sitting in Jerusalem of the Israeli and German cabinets.
But the key reason for Olmert’s visit on Sunday was to try to secure German agreement to a new, stiffer round of sanctions against Iran for its refusal to halt uranium enrichment in defiance of the United Nations. The timing could hardly be more propitious.
Two weeks ago, after Tehran received the final shipment of the 82 tons of enriched uranium from Russia needed to start the process of bringing the Bushehr nuclear reactor on line, Iran’s president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, again inveighed against the Jewish state.
In a speech from Bushehr carried live on state television, he urged the international community to “abandon the filthy Zionist entity, which has reached the end of the line. It has lost its reason to be and will sooner or later fall.” Ahmadinejad added: “The ones who still support the criminal Zionists should know that the occupiers’ days are numbered.”
Last week, Israeli defence officials announced that Iran had assisted Syria in developing a new surface-to-surface missile. According to Israel, Tehran has shared technical know-how with Damascus that enabled Syria to upgrade the Iranian-made Zelzal. The missile now has a range of approximately 250 kilometres and is capable of carrying a large warhead and is also believed to be more accurate than other similar weapons in the Syrian arsenal.
Also last week, United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon called on Iran and Syria to respect the arms embargo on the militias in Lebanon (i.e.: Hezbollah). A report submitted by Ban to the Security Council said that the two states are transferring anti-tank and anti-aircraft weapons across to Hezbollah in violation of the terms of the UN-brokered agreement that ended the Second Lebanon War in 2006. We trust that Ban was not surprised with the findings of the report.
Given the circumstances of Iran’s increasingly brazen actions aimed at harming Israel and the uncertainty attached to the outcome of the presidential elections in the United States, it is of vital strategic importance for Israel that Germany becomes an ally against Iran. We hope that Olmert’s visit was successful.
