WASHINGTON, May 3 (UPI) -- President Bush and German Chancellor Angela Merkel were meeting over Iran Wednesday as Tehran's standoff with the West intensified.
Tehran, which has defied a U.S. Security Council call to stop its nuclear fuel processing, said earlier this week they had improved the purity of fuel enrichment from 3.6 percent to 3.8 percent, discovered new uranium deposits in the country, and would militarily retaliate against Israel if the United States or others attacked it to destroy Iran's nuclear processing sites.
"This evening the president will be welcoming Chancellor Merkel of Germany here to the White House, and this is a topic that they will be talking about," said spokesman Scott McClellan. "We all have a shared concern about the regime developing nuclear weapons under the cover of a civilian program."
Bush's meeting with Merkel, who took office last November, would be the second this year in Washington and underlines the improvement in U.S.-German relations, strained when former Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder opposed the U.S. invasion of Iraq, worked in international forums to thwart it and also used anti-Americanism to boost his political fortunes.
Germany, together with Britain and France has been in the lead in negotiations with Iran to drop its nuclear processing program, which the West suspects is a cover for developing nuclear weapons.
Despite aid offers, Tehran has refused to abandon its programs, some of which were started clandestinely in defiance of international agreements.
The United States and its Western allies are pushing for possible U.S. sanctions against Tehran, but China and Russia - both veto-wielding members of the Security Council and which have important business ties to Iran - oppose them.
The meeting comes ahead of a new showdown at the United Nations.
