Germany 'needs a nuclear arsenal of its own'
Pastor Dale Morgan
Germany 'needs a nuclear arsenal of its own'*
By Kate Connolly in Berlin
Last Updated: 2:37AM GMT 27/05/2008
A former defence minister has provoked outrage and broken a major taboo
by suggesting that Germany should have its own nuclear arsenal.
Rupert Scholz argued that Berlin needed to embrace the idea of a nuclear
deterrent in the light of threats from terrorists and the Middle East.
"We need to ask ourselves how we could react in an appropriate manner to
a nuclear threat from a terror state, and if needs be, even by using our
own nuclear weapons," he said.
Mr Scholz, 68, who was the defence minister in Helmut Kohl's government
in 1988 and 1989, said he doubted whether other nations' guarantees,
made during the Cold War, to keep Germany safe in the face of a nuclear
threat, could still be trusted.
"Without the appropriate guarantees of protection by our partners, the
question of our own nuclear deterrent needs to be discussed openly," he
said.
"I am aware that I am addressing a taboo. But in the light of the
dangers that weapons of mass destruction could end up in the hands of
terrorists, this is a question which deserves serious debate."
Germany agreed not to develop nuclear weapons after the Second World War
in return for protection from the United States and Nato.
Mr Scholz's comments came under attack yesterday.
The security spokesman for the opposition Free Democrats, Rainer
Stinner, accused him of "throwing oil on the fire" of the tension
between Iran and the West.
Rainer Arnold, the defence spokesman for the Social Democrats, part of
the governing coalition, said Mr Scholz's remarks would not be taken
seriously.