"That's why the World Cup the army must enter at all into action"
A satirical cartoon depicting four Iranian players, on the field, with T-shirts covered with large belts of suicide bombers and explosives, at their side, four German soldiers with helmet and rifle to his shoulder. The comment: "That's why the World Cup the army should enter at all into action." The cartoon in question was published by the German newspaper Der Tassespiegel and, at the height of protests and upheavals in the Islamic world over the cartoons of Muhammad appeared in the European press, is designed to bring new controversies and the exchange of accusations with the Tehran regime, targeted by the international community for its alleged nuclear weapons plans and accused by the U.S. to be one of the main sponsors of international terrorism.
The cartoon was published at the weekend pages of comments from the Berlin daily, to illustrate a study of the debate, taking place in Germany, whether to support the military police to guarantee the safety and thwart any terrorist plans during the World Cup, scheduled from June 9 al 9 luglio prossimi. Ma la decisione di pubblicarla rischia di inasprire ulteriormente i rapporti fra Berlino e Teheran, già tesi dopo i contrasti dei giorni scorsi, con paragoni sul nazismo da entrambe le parti.
La Costituzione tedesca - per via del passato nazista e militarista del paese - vieta l'impiego delle forze armate con compiti di polizia sul piano interno. Favorevole al coinvolgimento dei militari ai Mondiali - con un relativo emendamento della Costituzione - è il ministro dell'Interno Wolfgang Schaeuble, mentre contrario è il suo collega della Difesa Franz-Josef Jung. Quest'ultimo tuttavia ha annunciato nei giorni scorsi che per i Mondiali saranno mobilitati duemila soldati della Bundeswehr, l'esercito tedesco: non, però, con compiti di polizia ma come supporto ai servizi sanitari e con funzione di prevenzione da possibili attacchi cosiddetti Nbc (nucleare, batteriologico, chimico).
L'atmosfera nei rapporti tra Germania e Iran si è fatta pesante dopo le parole pronunciate dal cancelliere Angela Merkel durante la recente Conferenza sulla sicurezza di Monaco di Baviera. Riferendosi alle dichiarazioni del presidente iraniano Ahmadinejad, che a più riprese ha negato l'Olocausto auspicando la scomparsa di Israele dalla carta geografica, la Merkel ha fatto un paragone con l'avvento in Germania del nazismo: allora, ha sottolineato la Merkel, molti avevano sottovalutato Hitler, e per questo oggi Amhadinejad va fermato in tempo. La risposta di Teheran non was made to wait, with a spokesman for the Iranian official that within days had compared the same Merkel to Hitler.
The issue has caused domestic political repercussions in Germany, with the SPD - an ally of the CDU in the Grand Coalition government - who has distanced himself from the statements of Merkel: "The military options should be ruled out," said the chairman of the Spd today in an interview published in Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung.
is true, however, that Iran's presence at the World Cup is creating a few concerns. A few days ago, the Bavarian interior minister, the conservative Guenther Beckstein, has proposed tighter controls on supporters and Muslims in particular on those Iranians who arrived in Germany in the summer. In his view it is necessary to ascertain that these are not "fanatical extremists". Merkel, however, said she was repeatedly opposed the proposals to exclude Iran from the World Cup because of the anti-Semitic statements of the President Ammadinejad.
Source: The Republic , Der Tagesspiegel
