Merkel discusses Middle East with Israel President

German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Israeli President Reuven Rivlin gathered for a meeting that marked the end of the latter's two-day trip to Germany, which had celebrated their bilateral relations.

Merkel and Rivlin met on Thursday at the Federal Chancellery in Berlin, where they discussed the fight against international terror and the situation in the Middle East, Efe news reported.

"Honored to meet this morning in Berlin with German Chancellor Angela Merkel," the President said in a tweet after the event.

The meeting was Rivlin's last official engagement in Germany, where on Wednesday he visited the former Nazi concentration camp of Dachau in Bavaria, which is now a museum, along with German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier and Bavarian Minister-President Horst Seehofer.

There, alongside his German counterpart, he laid a wreath to remember those killed at the hands of the Nazi regime, and walked through a replica of the notorious iron gate with the words "Arbeit macht frei" ("Work will set you free") on it.

Rivlin and Steinmeier also attended the inauguration of a memorial center to the 11 Israeli athletes and a German policeman who were killed by members of Palestinian terror group Black September during an attack at the 1972 Munich Olympic Games.

Relatives of the victims and President of the International Olympic Committee Thomas Bach also attended the event.

--IANS

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