{"id":8311,"date":"2026-04-28T20:15:03","date_gmt":"2026-04-28T20:15:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/8311\/"},"modified":"2026-04-28T20:15:03","modified_gmt":"2026-04-28T20:15:03","slug":"us-being-humiliated-by-iran-says-germanys-merz-politico","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/8311\/","title":{"rendered":"US being \u2018humiliated\u2019 by Iran, says Germany\u2019s Merz \u2013 POLITICO"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The remarks marked some of Merz\u2019s fiercest criticism yet of the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran. At the outset of the war, Merz was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.eu\/article\/friedrich-merz-powerless-oval-office-donald-trump-attacks-europe-allies\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">relatively supportive<\/a> of the U.S. effort, saying Germany shared the goal of regime change in Iran despite doubts about the Trump administration\u2019s methods.<\/p>\n<p>But as the conflict has dragged on and the economic costs on Germany\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.eu\/article\/german-conservatives-pile-pressure-ursula-von-der-leyen-dismantle-brussels-machine\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">already-struggling economy<\/a> mount amid the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.eu\/article\/airlines-cancel-flights-ground-planes-jet-fuel-shock-hits-europe\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">energy crunch<\/a>, Merz has become increasingly critical of the war and  of what he depicts as the U.S.\u2019s lack of a strategy for ending it.<\/p>\n<p>The U.S. \u201cquite obviously went into this war without any strategy,\u201d Merz said, warning that the conflict could degenerate into a quagmire like U.S. wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.<\/p>\n<p>Merz\u2019s comments came after a chaotic weekend for U.S.-Iran diplomacy. U.S. President Donald Trump abruptly <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2026\/04\/25\/trump-abruptly-cancels-kushner-witkoff-pakistan-trip-00892033\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">scrapped<\/a> a planned trip by special envoy Steve Witkoff and his son-in-law Jared Kushner to Pakistan, pulling back from what had been billed as a potential jump-start to fragile Iran talks.<\/p>\n<p>Germany has <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.eu\/article\/germany-to-trump-this-not-nato-war-strait-hormuz-iran\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">rejected<\/a> U.S. calls for NATO to join the conflict, insisting that it \u201cis not NATO\u2019s war,\u201d while leaving open the possibility of a limited role to secure the Strait of Hormuz \u00a0\u2014 including use of German <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.eu\/article\/germany-signals-readiness-to-send-minesweeping-vessels-to-the-strait-of-hormuz\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">minesweepers<\/a> \u2014 only once fighting ends.<\/p>\n<p>Merz has repeatedly warned of the economic ramifications of the war, reiterating on Monday that it is \u201ccosting us a great deal of money.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>With the Strait of Hormuz still largely closed to commercial shipping, oil has held <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.eu\/article\/trumps-iran-showdown-is-becoming-europes-political-nightmare\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">above $100 per barrel<\/a>, driving up costs across the board in Europe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The remarks marked some of Merz\u2019s fiercest criticism yet of the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran. At the outset&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":8312,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[8162,2373,502,479,1646,393,5,253,2694,8163,3469,481,409,2379],"class_list":["post-8311","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-germany","tag-afghanistan","tag-conflict","tag-diplomacy","tag-donald-trump","tag-energy","tag-friedrich-merz","tag-germany","tag-iran","tag-iraq","tag-pakistan","tag-shipping","tag-united-states","tag-war","tag-war-in-iran"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8311","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8311"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8311\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8312"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8311"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8311"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8311"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}