Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi on Saturday threatened massive military strikes in response to a new attack on the people of Iran.
Araghchi was responding to comments made by German Chancellor Friedrich Merz during his visit to South Korea, when Merz called for a rapid end to the war with Iran and said that rising energy prices alone had cost Europe more than €100 billion ($112 billion).
Posting on X, Araghchi said: “100bn Euro is nothing compared to the Earth-shattering blow Iran’s Powerful Armed Forces will deal against those who dare harm our people.”
He noted that Merz had hailed Israeli-US bombing of Iran last year as “doing Europe’s dirty work.”
“Red lines are a thing of the past,” Araghchi posted in English.
On June 17, 2025, during an interview with German public broadcaster ZDF at the G7 summit in Kananaskis, Canada, Merz said: “This is the dirty work that Israel is doing – for all of us. We are also affected by this regime.”
Merz went on to say that he had the greatest respect for the fact that Israel had the courage to go down this path and that otherwise, the world might have witnessed Tehran’s terror continuing for months and years, potentially with a nuclear weapon.
Merz’s “dirty work” remark attracted widespread criticism. He later said: “I did describe it that way. There is no need to repeat it. One can express it in different ways.”