Germany’s Schroeder warns against war over Iran’s nuclear-programme

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Davos, Jan 28: German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder said the international community has to prevent the dispute over Iran’s nuclear programme escalating into a new Middle East war.

“We have enough conflict in this region and cannot afford another military conflict,” said Schroeder in response to a question following a speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland on Friday.

The US, which accuses Iran of having a secret nuclear-weapons programme, has conducted clandestine missions inside Iran for months to identify dozens of possible targets for air strikes and commando raids, a report by Pulitzer prize-winning journalist Seymour Hersh said this month in New Yorker magazine.

Germany, France and the UK have been pursuing a policy of negotiation to persuade Iran to open up its nuclear activities to international scrutiny. Schroeder, along with French President Jacques Chirac, opposed the US-led war in Iran’s neighbour, Iraq, and refused to send troops to peacekeeping operations there.

“We are decisively in favor of Iran declaring that it will permanently renounce the possession of nuclear weapons,” said Schroeder, 60. “But we’re equally decisively in favour of reaching this goal diplomatically and politically.”

Iranian foreign minister Kamal Kharrazi said in Davos on Thursday that Iran rejects any ‘discriminatory’ proposals to restrict its nuclear activities.

Kharrazi said he hadn’t seen reports about a proposal that Iran and other countries accept a five-year moratorium on uranium enrichment, which the UN nuclear agency said it will make this May at an international conference to update the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

Iran in November agreed with the three European countries to suspend uranium enrichment work, a process that could generate fuel for a nuclear weapon, as a confidence-building measure that might lead to normalised relations, greater trade and scientific and technological exchanges with the European Union. Iran has since said its pledge was only temporary.