Schröder, echoing President Bush's speech to Israeli radio in which Bush said that all options regarding Iran were on the table, said at an election rally, "Let's take the military options off the table." Unfortunately for him, his appeasing tactics seem to have failed.
Mr. Schröder's weekend comments indicated a shift in the German position, because he seems ready to grant Iran guarantees against any use of force without Iranian concessions.
Most of the commentary in the German press was critical of Mr. Schröder's weekend comments.
"Schröder knows that a strike against Iran is not on the agenda and that the U.S.A. is politically and militarily incapable of carrying one out," the German business daily Handelsblatt said in an editorial on Monday. "And yet he misuses Bush's remarks in order to score points in the election campaign. In doing so, he endangers the crucial solidarity of the West."
The daily Die Welt said, "The chancellor should be ashamed."
UPDATE: Schröder's opponent also caves on Iran.
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