Germany's Foreign Minister Discusses Iran's Nuclear Program, Presence In Afghanistan
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton met with German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle Wednesday. J. Scott Applewhite/AP hide caption
Germany’s Foreign Minister and Vice Chancellor, Guido Westerwelle, met with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in Washington Wednesday to discuss a wide range of issues, including the Middle East Peace Talks.
Beforehand, Westerwelle spoke to NPR News Correspondent Michele Kelemen about Germany’s hopes for Middle East peace, Iran's nuclear program, and his country’s presence in Afghanistan.
On the one hand we see that the speech of President Ahmadinejad was of course not acceptable, but on the other side a few hours later we heard some interesting signals out of the Iran government...It is too early to say if these are serious offers, but I think we should look into this very carefully because the idea of sanctions was not to punish a country; the idea was to be bring the Iranian government back to the table, back to dialogue.
Westerwelle also shared his thoughts on Germany's current immigration debates sparked by a controversial book by Thilo Sarrazin, a former member of Germany's Central Bank.