ISRAEL: German Defence Ministers stresses in Tel Aviv danger of Iran's nuclear programme.

German Defence Minister Franz Josef Jung on Friday (November 3) met with his Israeli counterpart Amir Peretz in the coastal city of Tel Aviv. At a news conference ahead of their meeting, Jung said that the Iranian nuclear race is not only an Israeli concern but an international one. "I have to emphasise that we have to take every measure necessary to prevent Iran from achieving nuclear weapons. This is of course the interest of Israel as it is the interest of the international community and world peace therefore I think it's incredibly important for the U.N. and the Security Council to deal with this issue together and united and when I say united I mean that the U.S., Europe, Russia, China, they all will give a a clear answer to this problem so we can all prevent such a situation to happen," Jung told reporters. Peretz referred to the issue of the German forces patrolling off shores of Lebanon as part of the UNIFIL forces. "In these days we are strengthening the coordination between the forces from Germany that are staying here with the UNIFIL forces, that are operating of course as part of the maintenance of the naval closer and we intend to coordinate the activity in such a way that there will be no mistakes nor the shadow of mistakes in the future," Peretz said. On October 25, Israel denied a German newspaper report that two of its air force planes had fired twice as they flew over a German navy ship patrolling the Lebanon coast as part of an international peacekeeper force. Germany's Defense Ministry said an incident had occurred, without giving details. The German daily Der Tagesspiegel quoted a German junior defense minister as telling a parliamentary committee two Israeli F-16 fighters had flown low over the ship, firing twice. The jets also activated infra-red countermeasures to ward off any rocket attack, the paper quoted him as saying, in an advance release from Thursday's edition. Israeli air force patrols over Lebanon have come under international scrutiny since a U.N.-brokered truce on August 14 ended a month-long war between Israel and Hezbollah guerrillas. The Israeli military spokeswoman said the German statements appeared to refer to an incident that took place on Tuesday (October 24). Jets were scrambled when a helicopter took off from a German aircraft carrier close to Israeli waters without identifying itself. The pilots of the planes realized the mistake, did not engage the helicopter and returned home, the spokeswoman said. Germany assumed command of a U.N. naval force off Lebanon 10 days ago, and has sent eight ships and 1,000 service personnel to join the international peace operation in the region. The naval force is charged with preventing weapons smuggling and helping maintain a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah.

ITN Source | November 3, 2006

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