German Chancellor Friedrich Merz on Monday claimed that the United States is being “humiliated” by Iran’s leadership stalling negotiations as the conflict in the Middle East continues.
Merz delivered this claim during his participation at a European Union event at the Carolus-Magnus-Gymnasium, a school in Marsberg, North Rhine-Westphalia. The Guardian reported that Merz, during his speech, claimed that Tehran is outwitting the Trump administration at the negotiating table.
According to Deutsche Welle, the German Chancellor said that Washington appeared to lack a “clear strategy” to end the conflict, comparing the ongoing situation in the Middle East to that of Afghanistan and Iraq.
Bloomberg published a clip of Merz’s remarks on social media, with an English translation done by the Associated Press.
“At the moment, I can’t tell what strategic exit the Americans are pursuing. Especially since the Iranians are obviously negotiating very skilfully, or perhaps very skilfully refusing to negotiate, and are letting the Americans travel to Islamabad only to send them back home-empty handed,” Merz reportedly said.
“An entire nation is being humiliated by the Iranian leadership, especially by these so-called Revolutionary Guards,” he continued.
Per Bloomberg, the German Chancellor reiterated that European leaders were not consulted by the United States before the start of the war in Iran, and said he had directly expressed his scepticism to President Donald Trump in two conversations.
“If I had known that this would go on for five or six weeks and keep getting worse, I would have made my point to him even more forcefully,” Merz reportedly said.
Merz’s remarks come days after President Donald Trump announced on Saturday that a U.S. delegation trip to Islamabad, Pakistan, led by Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and adviser Jared Kushner to hold talks with Iranian representatives had been cancelled. President Trump detailed that the trip was cancelled due to “infighting” and “confusion” within Iran’s so-called “leadership.”
According to Deutsche Welle, Merz stressed at the school event that the conflict is now having a negative effect on the German economy and said, “it is costing us a great deal of money.” He reiterated Germany’s disposition to send minesweepers at the Strait of Hormuz to help clear the trade route — but conditioned the offer, stating that a prerequisite for it is that hostilities in the region must first come to and end.
The German newspaper Die Welt reports that, hours after the Marsberg school visit, Merz held a closed doors parliamentary meeting with members of the Christian Democratic Union and Christian Social Union in Bavaria (CDU/CSU) alliance in which he said that he has become “disillusioned” with the actions of the U.S. and Israel against Iran — and reportedly argued that the solution to the “problem” that the U.S. and Israel initially aimed for within a few days has not materialized.
“That’s why we, from the European side, also want to make diplomatic efforts to find a solution,” Merz said during the meeting, per Die Welt. “We are coordinating closely with the American side, but we also say that we have our own European ideas on how to reach a solution to this conflict.”
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