Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been lobbying U.S. President Donald Trump to join his country’s military campaign and help attack Iran’s nuclear sites. Military experts say Israel is unable to target the deep underground Fordow facility without U.S. military help.
After cutting short his stay at the G7 summit in Canada, Trump said aboard Air Force One that he was looking for a “complete give-up” and “a real end” to the conflict with Iran. “I’m not too much in a mood to negotiate,” he added.
Trump’s ultimate intentions remain unclear, and other European leaders have suggested the U.S. in not contemplating direct military participation. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer told journalists at the G7 summit that “there is nothing the president said that suggests he’s about to get involved in this conflict.”
In his Tuesday television interview with Welt, a sister publication of POLITICO in the Axel Springer Group, Merz said the regime in Iran had been badly damaged by Israel’s strikes. “I can hardly imagine that the mullah’s regime will return to its old functions, especially as large parts of the military leadership are no longer alive,” he said.
“So it won’t go back to the way it was.”