German Chancellor Friedrich Merz on Monday criticised the US for lacking an \u201cexit strategy\u201d in the Iran war, while saying the Americans were \u201chumiliated\u201d by the Iranian regime during the negotiations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIranians are obviously very skilled at negotiating\u2014or rather, very skillful at not negotiating\u2014and then letting the Americans travel to Islamabad and leave again without any results,\u201d Merz said during a discussion with high school students in the western town of Marsberg.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAn entire nation is being humiliated by the Iranian leadership, especially by these so-called Revolutionary Guards,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Merz said he did not believe the US could end the war in Iran quickly \u201cbecause the Iranians are obviously stronger than expected, and the Americans clearly don\u2019t have a truly convincing strategy in the negotiations either\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The conservative German leader criticised the Trump administration for failing to learn from the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, saying the US entered the conflict with Iran without a clear strategy and leaving what comes next unpredictable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe problem with such conflicts is always this: You don\u2019t just have to get in; you also have to get out. We saw that very painfully in Afghanistan, for 20 years. We saw it in Iraq,\u201d Merz said. \u201cThis whole thing is, at the very least, ill-considered, and I don’t currently see what strategic exit the Americans are choosing\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Merz doubled down on criticism of the US and Israel over the prolonged war with Iran, and vowed that Europeans would step up diplomatic efforts to find a solution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cRegarding Iran, yes, I’ve become disillusioned,\u201d Merz told a press conference on Monday in Berlin when asked about his earlier remarks that the US lacks an \u201cexit strategy\u201d and that Americans were \u201chumiliated\u201d by Tehran.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe US and Israel assumed, right from the start, that this problem would be resolved within a few days, and we now have to acknowledge that it isn’t,\u201d the chancellor said. \u201cThat’s why we, from the European side, want to contribute diplomatically to finding a solution.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Conservative leader noted that Germany has resumed direct talks with Iran and is consulting regional partners to support diplomatic initiatives aimed at finding a solution to the conflict.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe are coordinating closely with the US side on this, but we also make it clear that we have our own European ideas on how to reach a resolution to the conflict,\u201d Merz said. \u201cII hope we succeed, but I am not certain,\u201d he concluded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Merz also warned that the US war in Iran has deeply affected his country\u2019s economic performance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a rather tricky situation at the moment and it\u2019s costing us a great deal of money. This conflict, this war against Iran, has a direct impact on our economic performance.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Last week, Europe\u2019s economic powerhouse slashed its growth forecast for this year and next, squarely blaming the US-Israeli war on Iran.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The conservative-led coalition of Merz now expects the economy to grow only 0.5% this year, down from a prior estimate of 1%. For 2027, it likewise lowered its forecast to 0.9% from 1,3%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Earlier this month, a poll conducted by the Sunday daily Bild am Sonntag newspaper found that 70% of eligible voters are dissatisfied with Merz\u2019s performance, while only 21% are satisfied. Seventy-three percent of those surveyed are dissatisfied with the center-right coalition of Christian Democrats and Social Democrat, while only 20% are satisfied.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Meanwhile, NBC reports that US military bases in\u00a0the Middle East sustained far heavier damage from Iranian retaliatory strikes than publicly acknowledged by\u00a0the White House.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
According to\u00a0NBC’s inside sources, the damage to\u00a0bases and military equipment runs into the billions of\u00a0dollars. Aircraft hangars, warehouses, runways, and satellite communication infrastructure were among the facilities seriously affected. In\u00a0response, the US administration has restricted access for private satellite companies to\u00a0imagery of\u00a0the sites, complicating efforts to\u00a0assess the full extent of\u00a0the destruction. US Central Command declined to\u00a0comment on\u00a0the reported scale of\u00a0the damage. – AA and ONM reporter<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz on Monday criticised the US for lacking an \u201cexit strategy\u201d in the Iran war, while saying the Americans were \u201chumiliated\u201d by the Iranian regime during the negotiations. \u201cIranians are obviously very skilled at negotiating\u2014or rather, very skillful at not negotiating\u2014and then letting the Americans travel to Islamabad and leave again without […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":2958,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,205],"tags":[65,23,24],"class_list":{"0":"post-2956","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-conflict-zones","8":"category-secondary-story","9":"tag-iran","10":"tag-trump","11":"tag-united-states"},"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/1nationmedia.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2956","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/1nationmedia.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/1nationmedia.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1nationmedia.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1nationmedia.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2956"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/1nationmedia.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2956\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2968,"href":"https:\/\/1nationmedia.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2956\/revisions\/2968"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1nationmedia.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2958"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/1nationmedia.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2956"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1nationmedia.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2956"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1nationmedia.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2956"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}