Tensions remain between US and EU
By Peter Spiegel and Daniel Dombey in Munich
Published: February 13 2005 18:00 | Last updated: February 13 2005 18:00
Over the past two years, the annual gathering of defence ministers, parliamentarians and military experts in Munich has become one of the most public barometers of the transatlantic relationship.
Two years ago, as US and British troops were gathering in Kuwaiti ports, Joschka Fischer, the German foreign minister, delivered an emotional plea to Donald Rumsfeld, the American defence secretary seated impassively near him, to stop the march to war, opening two days of anger and bitterness.
Three U.S.-government sources have reported the existence of U.S. military drone flights made over Iran, carrying surveillance equipment and particle filters capable of detecting nuclear materials. Confusingly, U.S.-military sources denied the overflights.

Iranian military personnel said they were aware of them, and sightings had prompted a number of UFO reports in the area of Iranian nuclear installations. They viewed them as provocative and probably designed to trick the Iranians into turning on their radar so that the US could determine potential targets.

Because Iran does not have political ties with the US, it has formally issued its objections to the flights through Swiss diplomats.