Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said here Tuesday that his
country would not be the first country to introduce nuclear weapons
in the Middle East.
"That was our position, that is our position and that will
remain our position," he said after talks with his German
counterpart Angela Merkel.
In an interview with a German television station broadcast on
Monday, Olmert appeared to list Israel among the world's nuclear
powers, violating the country's long-standing policy of not
officially acknowledging that it has atomic weapons.
Israel, which foreign experts say has the sixth-largest nuclear
arsenal in the world, has stuck to a policy of ambiguity on nuclear
weapons for decades, refusing to confirm or deny whether it has
them.
The comments came days after incoming US Defence Secretary
Robert Gates, in testimony to a Senate committee, identified Israel
as a nuclear power. Gates' comments irked Israeli officials.
With Olmert's quote featured on the front pages of all of
Israel's major papers Tuesday and with political rivals calling for
his resignation, aides to Olmert who was in Berlin yesterday on a
state visit hurriedly said the remark had been misinterpreted.
Olmert spokeswoman Miri Eisin said the prime minister had been
listing not nuclear states but "responsible nations."
"The prime minister stated clearly that Israel will not be the
first to introduce nuclear weapons into the Middle East," Eisin
said, adding that the quote had been "taken out of context."
But the damage control did little to stem the uproar, adding to
the already considerable political difficulties of a prime minister
whose popularity has plunged since this summer's costly and
inconclusive war in Lebanon.
In a front-page editorial, the daily Haaretz slammed
Olmert, who it said "preferred to forget that he was prime
minister, not another commentator" or minor politician.
Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom, of the hardline Likud, another
opposition party, said the comment could hurt Israel's attempt to
get the international community to prevent Iran from obtaining
nuclear weapons.
Shalom said Olmert "gave tools" to Israel's enemies, allowing
them to say: "Why are you dealing only with Iran while Israel is
confirming that it has the same kind of weapons?"
In another development, Olmert and Merkel told a joint press
conference after talks that they were concerned at Iran's nuclear
program, vowing to support UN efforts to impose sanctions on
Tehran.
But Merkel ruled out a military strike against Iran, saying it
was not on the table.
She pledged to revive the flagging Middle East peace process when
Germany takes the rotating presidency of the European Union on Jan.
1.
Olmert hailed these efforts but noted the basis for such efforts
should be the so-called roadmap peace plan and the Middle Quartet
comprised of the UN, the EU, Russia and the United States.
The two leaders did not go into their differences over whether
to involve Syria in the Middle East peace process after Olmert
criticized German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier's last
week Damascus visit as a mistake.
But Merkel insisted that the trip was useful to obtain a
first-hand view of the situation, but the signals that Steinmeier
brought back with him were "anything but positive."
She told a news briefing before meeting Olmert that there would
be no peace in the Middle East without Syria's involvement, adding
Syria had to be a partner simply because it was there.
Olmert, who is on a two-visit to Germany, is scheduled to meet
German President Horst Koehler before traveling to Italy.
(Xinhua News Agency, China Daily December 13,
2006)
