Germany views Iran as a potential threat not just to Israel, but also to European countries, Chancellor Angela Merkel said Tuesday at a news conference in Jerusalem with Zionist Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Germany views Iran as a potential threat not just to Israel, but also to European countries, Chancellor Angela Merkel said Tuesday at a news conference in Jerusalem with Zionist Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

"We see the threat not just as a threat for the Zionist entity but as a general threat for Europe as well," she said at the joint news conference, adding that Germany would pursue international talks with Iran on its nuclear activities.

"It is clear that there is a difference of opinion here with regard to these negotiations and whether they ought to take place. We have set out on the path of low enrichment, but enrichment does take place and I believe that we can succeed," she said.

 
"We can expect a kind of shield being set up in order to make sure that Iran does not achieve in the short future a (military) nuclear capability," she added, in an apparent allusion to an envisaged regime of low-volume enrichment and enhanced nuclear inspections.