Sept. 21 (Bloomberg) — German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s coalition government backs further sanctions against Iran to force it abandon its nuclear program, ruling party lawmakers said, displaying a hardening stance toward the Islamic nation.
"Germany should not hesitate in accepting that further sanctions may be necessary,” Ruprecht Polenz, head of the German parliament’s foreign affairs committee, said in a telephone interview today. “It now seems legitimate to consider raising the stakes,” said Polenz, a member of Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union.
His comments were made the same day as a regular German parliamentary bulletin said the government had tightened controls on the export of ship and air navigation aids to Iran to halt military use of the equipment in the Persian Gulf.
Evidence of Germany’s hardening stance toward Iran comes as representatives join the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council meeting in Washington today to discuss a possible third round of sanctions.
