{"id":33854,"date":"2026-03-24T13:18:06","date_gmt":"2026-03-24T13:18:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/33854\/"},"modified":"2026-03-24T13:18:06","modified_gmt":"2026-03-24T13:18:06","slug":"german-president-slams-trumps-iran-war-as-illegal-politico","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/33854\/","title":{"rendered":"German president slams Trump\u2019s Iran war as illegal \u2013 POLITICO"},"content":{"rendered":"

Steinmeier, speaking in front of an audience of German diplomats in Berlin, criticized Trump for withdrawing<\/a> from the nuclear deal with Iran during his first term in office. The president, who served as Germany\u2019s foreign minister from 2013 to 2017, had helped negotiate that deal.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis war is also \u2014 and please bear with me when I say this, as someone directly involved \u2014 a politically disastrous mistake,\u201d said Steinmeier. \u201cAnd that\u2019s what frustrates me the most. A truly avoidable, unnecessary war, if its goal was to stop Iran from developing a nuclear weapon.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite the president\u2019s largely symbolic role, his strident criticism is likely to fuel a growing domestic debate over Germany\u2019s stance on the Iran war and its relationship with the U.S.<\/p>\n

Merz and his fellow conservatives were initially far more supportive of the U.S. and Israeli attacks on Iran than many other EU countries, arguing that Germany shares the goal of regime change in Tehran. But as the conflict has\u00a0expanded<\/a>\u00a0and the economic and security effects on the EU\u2019s biggest economy have become clearer, the chancellor has become far more openly critical<\/a>, saying the war has raised \u201cmajor questions\u201d about Europe\u2019s security.<\/p>\n

Steinmeier, who refrained from criticizing Israel directly, also compared the transatlantic rift during Trump\u2019s second term to Germany\u2019s divorce from Russia in the wake of Moscow\u2019s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust as I believe there will be no going back to the way things were before February 24, 2022 in our relationship with Russia, so I believe there will be no going back to the way things were before January 20, 2025 in transatlantic relations,\u201d Steinmeier said, referring to the day of Trump\u2019s second inauguration. \u201cThe rupture is too deep.\u201d<\/p>\n

Steinmeier then urged his country to become more independent of the U.S., both in terms of defense and technology, arguing that such autonomy is necessary to prevent Trump administration interference in his country\u2019s domestic politics.<\/p>\n

The German military \u201cmust become the backbone of conventional defense in Europe,\u201d he said. \u201cIn the technological sphere, our dependence on the U.S. is even greater. This makes it all the more important that we do not simply accept this situation.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Steinmeier, speaking in front of an audience of German diplomats in Berlin, criticized Trump for withdrawing from the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":33855,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[648,38,2196,159,15345,1120,537,34,9283,49,3122,5634,443,947,3080,51,36],"class_list":{"0":"post-33854","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-iran","8":"tag-defense","9":"tag-donald-trump","10":"tag-far-right","11":"tag-foreign-policy","12":"tag-frank-walter-steinmeier","13":"tag-friedrich-merz","14":"tag-germany","15":"tag-iran","16":"tag-kremlin","17":"tag-middle-east","18":"tag-nuclear-deal","19":"tag-platforms","20":"tag-security","21":"tag-technology","22":"tag-transatlantic-relations","23":"tag-united-states","24":"tag-war"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/116284352967468496","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33854","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33854"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33854\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33855"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33854"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33854"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33854"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}