German parliament calls for removal of all US nukes
IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency
Berlin, Dec 4, IRNA -- German legislators here Thursday voted unanimously in favor of withdrawal of all US nuclear arms from their territory.
The latest parliamentary move follows an earlier pledge by German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle to hold swift talks on the removal of US atomic weapons from German soil.
"We want the pullout of the last atomic weapons which are stationed in Germany," the minister was quoted saying.
The goal is to have an "atomic weapons-free country," he added.
Westerwelle's remarks were underscored by Merkel who said talks on the nuclear arms withdrawal from Germany would involve talks with NATO and the US.
It is "important to have talks with our partners," the German leader went on to say.
As part of the coalition agreement between Merkel's Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and her junior coalition partner, the Free Democratic Partner (FDP), the new center-right government is to pursue the goal of a nuclear weapons-free Germany.
At least 20 American atomic warheads are reportedly deployed underground at the German air base in the southwestern town of Buechel where they can be mounted on German Tornado fighter planes.
Around 350 American nuclear warheads remain still in Europe, according to various press reports.
Up to 130 warheads had been initially stored at the US Ramstein air force base in southwestern Germany but according to the weekly news magazine Der Spiegel, the arsenal was cleared during renovation work in 2005, and it was likely they were never returned to Germany.
According to a list handed out to US weapons inspectors, the arms may have been removed.
Both, the German defense ministry and the Pentagon, refuse to discuss the status of those atomic bombs.
The number of US warheads based in Europe during the Cold War was in the thousands as the highest estimated number topped about 7,000 in 1971.
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