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Berlin: German Chancellor Angela Merkel expressed solidarity with Israel in the face of threats to the Jewish state yesterday, on the eve of a three-day visit to the country, and said Iran must halt its nuclear programme.
"The threats to which the Israeli state is exposed are also threats to us," Merkel said in her weekly podcast.
She said she would underline on the trip that "the Iranian nuclear programme cannot continue and Iran must finally play to international rules."
Merkel will be the first German chancellor to address Israel's parliament, more than six decades after the end of World War Two. Her visit will launch yearly talks between the governments. She will also visit the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial on Monday.
"With this [visit] we want to take responsibility for the past ... we want to show clearly that Israel's right to exist is a permanent part of German foreign policy," she said.
The German Foreign Ministry said that Merkel and peace envoy Tony Blair would organise a Middle East security conference in Berlin in June.
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