December 12, 2005
Paul Spiegel, president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, has called on his country's government to break off all ties with Iran after the latest inflammatory remarks by the Iranian president. Spiegel told the media that Chancellor Angela Merkel should sever ties with Iran after its president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, suggested that Germany and Austria create a Jewish state on their own territory. Ahmadinejad also cast doubt on the Holocaust. "This man's pronouncements over the past few weeks are the worst uttered in this regard by a statesman since Adolf Hitler," Spiegel told German television ZDF. Though she did not respond directly to Spiegel’s remarks, Merkel called the remarks “completely unacceptable” and said she would not tolerate threats to Israel’s existence. She made the comments during a meeting in Berlin with French president Jacques Chirac, who joined her in condemning Ahmadinejad’s remarks. Germany’s new foreign minister, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, also condemned the Iranian president’s remarks.
