Joint Press Conference with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and U.S. President George W. Bush (Excerpts)

January 4, 2007

Weapon Program: 

  • Nuclear

Related Country: 

  • Iran

. . .

PRESIDENT BUSH: We talked about Iran, and I thanked Chancellor Merkel's strong support for a Chapter 7 Iranian -- Chapter 7 United Nations Security Council resolution on Iran. It was an important message to send Iran, that the free world wants there to be a peaceful future. And we don't see a peaceful future with the Iranians developing a nuclear weapon. And so I want to thank you for your leadership, Madam Chancellor. We're going to continue to work together on the Iranian issue. It's important for us to follow through in order -- on this Chapter 7 resolution in order to solve this issue peacefully.

. . .

CHANCELLOR MERKEL: I simply think that we ought to try time and again to achieve some sort of results in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Looking at another field, for example, the adoption of the resolution on Iran, after all, we were able, looking at the past months to forge a uniform position of the international community and have that reflected in a resolution of the United Nations Security Council. I think that's an enormous success, although things went obviously more slowly than if the EU and the United States, for example, had negotiated together.

But by including Russia and China time and again in these negotiations, what evolved out of that process is an international community that is credibly being able to show Iran where there is a red line. And I think it's essential to see that the European Union, the United States, China and Russia need to pull in the same direction on a number of other international issues.

. . .