German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul said at a press conference during a visit to Israel that Berlin would carefully examine any steps to ease sanctions on Iran, The Times of Israel reports.

According to him, it is necessary to prevent Tehran from acquiring nuclear weapons and to include in the US-Iran talks the issues of Iran’s ballistic missile program and its support for regional armed groups.

“I believe that during these talks between Israel and Germany there is a fairly unified position,” Wadephul said in German at a press conference with Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar, responding to a question from The Times of Israel about Berlin’s position on the memorandum of understanding between the United States and Iran.

Wadephul stressed that Iran must under no circumstances possess nuclear weapons, pointing to Europe’s decision to reactivate the snapback mechanism and impose new sanctions on Tehran last year.

“At some point, we Europeans will have to take part in the [US-Iran] negotiations, and we will watch very carefully to ensure that sanctions are eased only when it becomes truly clear to us that guarantees have been put in place to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons,” he said.

The German foreign minister noted that “Iran’s support for regional armed groups and its ballistic missile program” — key issues for Israel that were not addressed in the memorandum of understanding — must also become part of the US-Iran negotiations.

According to him, he discussed this issue with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio during a meeting last week.

“We have always made it clear that Iran’s behavior in its region must be taken into account — its support for various terrorist organizations: not only Hezbollah, not only Hamas, but also the Houthis. The Houthis threaten not only Israel, but also the international maritime and trade routes that Germany uses for Europe. This must be taken into account, and of course Iran’s ballistic missile program must also be considered, as it may pose a threat to Europe as well,” Wadephul said.

According to him, these issues “must be included in the negotiations,” though he noted that “at this stage, the negotiations have not really substantively begun yet.”