German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Wednesday that progress in the Middle East peace process would boost the chances of the West ending its standoff with Iran over its disputed nuclear program.
"It is essential that progress is made in the Middle East peace process because that would allow an improvement in the chances for an agreement with Iran," Merkel said in Berlin after talks with Jordan's King Abdullah II.
"It has to be made clear that peace in the Middle East is indispensable for the whole world," she told reporters.
Germany is one of six powers - with the U.S., China, France, the U.K. and Russia - trying to persuade Iran to abandon its nuclear program, fearing that Iran wants to develop atomic weapons.
The U.N. Security Council has slapped three sets of sanctions on Iran, which says its nuclear activities are only to produce electricity.
Widely considered to be the Middle East's sole nuclear armed power, Israel considers Iran its archenemy because of repeated statements by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad that the Jewish state is doomed to be wiped off the map.
Israel's new Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said repeatedly that Iran's nuclear program constitutes the biggest concern for the Jewish state since its creation in 1948.
Thursday, Israel's new Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman is due to hold talks in Berlin with German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, a Foreign Ministry spokesman said Wednesday.