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The United States is being "humiliated" by Iran, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said on Monday, warning that the conflict is not likely to end soon.
"The Iranians are clearly stronger than expected and the Americans clearly have no truly convincing strategy in the negotiations either," Merz said during a school visit in Marsberg, a town in his home region of Sauerland.
"The problem with conflicts like this is always: you don't just have to get in, you have to get out again. We saw that very painfully in Afghanistan, for 20 years. We saw it in Iraq."
The US "quite obviously went into this war without any strategy," Merz said, making it all the harder to bring the conflict to an end.
"Especially since the Iranians are obviously negotiating very skilfully — or simply very skilfully not negotiating," he added. "A whole nation is being humiliated by the Iranian leadership."
"It is at the moment a pretty tangled situation," the chancellor said. "And it is costing us a great deal of money. This conflict, this war against Iran, has a direct impact on our economic output."
Germany is maintaining its offer to deploy minesweepers to help reopen the Strait of Hormuz, which is central to global oil supplies, he said. The prerequisite for that, however, was that hostilities must first come to an end.
The chancellor's visit to the Carolus-Magnus-Gymnasium in Marsberg was part of the EU Project Day, during which schools across Germany hold events focused on the European Union.
The project day was launched in 2007 by the German EU Council Presidency.
snootfull on April 27th, 2026 at 15:38 UTC »
Trump's rude, disrespectful, and even directly antagonistic approach towards NATO and Europe has enabled European leaders to speak hard truths. Before Trump, comments like this about the U.S. from a German leader would have been unthinkable. But with Trump, there's really no downside to calling him out on his stupid behavior since the relationship can't really get much worse.
Leather-Objective-87 on April 27th, 2026 at 13:36 UTC »
Im quite surprised he was so explicit!!
pvthudson79 on April 27th, 2026 at 13:18 UTC »
US is being humiliated by Trump and his administration.