Ayhan \u015eim\u015fek<\/p>\n
17 June 2026\u2022Update: 17 June 2026<\/p>\n
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz called on Israel Wednesday to end its large-scale military offensive in southern Lebanon and adopt a constructive approach toward President Donald Trump\u2019s peace agreement with Iran.<\/p>\n
Speaking at the end of the G7 summit in France, Merz said the leaders\u2019 discussions centered on the US-Iran framework deal and the escalating situation in Lebanon, where Israel has continued its attacks despite a ceasefire and criticism from allies.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe understand Israel\u2019s security interests, but these must not extend to the point of destabilizing an entire neighboring country \u2014 and that was the unanimous view of all G7 partners,\u201d Merz told public broadcaster ARD. He said the group expects Israel to de-escalate the conflict and bring the hostilities to an end.<\/p>\n
Asked whether he was worried Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu might try to derail the US-Iran deal, Merz said he did not share that concern, while noting that he\u2019s following developments with concern. He called on the Israeli government to support Trump\u2019s agreement with Iran.<\/p>\n
\u201cFirst and foremost, it\u2019s about peace in the region, and then, of course, indirectly, it\u2019s also about our interests,\u201d Merz said, referring to the negative impact of the prolonged conflict on energy prices, global economy.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut above all, it is crucial that this conflict be brought to an end now;\u201d he stressed. \u201cIsrael must not become a driver of conflict but must instead play an active role in ending it\u2014and that opportunity exists.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ayhan \u015eim\u015fek 17 June 2026\u2022Update: 17 June 2026 German Chancellor Friedrich Merz called on Israel Wednesday to end…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":497682,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[85,46,43,180804],"class_list":["post-497681","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-israel","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-news","tag-sitekeywords"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/497681","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=497681"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/497681\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/497682"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=497681"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=497681"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=497681"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}