German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has criticised the US for going into the Iran war without any strategy, saying this also makes it harder to end the conflict.<\/p>\n
“The problem with conflicts like these is always the same: it\u2019s not just about getting in; you also have to get out. We saw that all too painfully in Afghanistan, for 20 years. We saw it in Iraq,\u201d the chancellor said while speaking to students in Marsberg in the Sauerland region of Germany.<\/p>\n
The lack of US strategy and the fact that the Iranians are stronger than previously thought made it hard to end the conflict now, he said.<\/p>\n
“Especially since the Iranians are negotiating very skillfully \u2014 or rather, very skillfully not negotiating,” he added. “And then letting the Americans travel to Islamabad, only to send them back without any results. An entire nation is being humiliated by the Iranian leadership, especially by these so-called Revolutionary Guards.”<\/p>\n
Germany, he said, maintains its offer to send minesweepers in order to help reopen the Strait of Hormuz, but only after the fighting is over.<\/p>\n
It comes as Iran offered to end its chokehold<\/a> on the Strait of Hormuz<\/a> in exchange for the US lifting its blockade on the country<\/a> and an end to the war, two regional officials said.<\/p>\n Under the proposal, discussions on the larger question of Iran’s nuclear program would come later.<\/p>\n US President Donald Trump seemed unlikely to accept the offer, and the existing ceasefire keeps the US and Iran in a fragile standoff over the strait.<\/p>\n Iran\u2019s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi was in Russia Tuesday for a meeting with President Vladimir Putin as part of a trip that included two stops in Pakistan, where leaders are scrambling to reignite stalled talks between Tehran and Washington.<\/p>\n Airlines worldwide have begun cancelling flights as the war in the Middle East strains jet fuel supplies and pushes up oil prices.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has criticised the US for going into the Iran war without any strategy, saying…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":400751,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[65,42,5107,43,64,40,38,41,39,1745,66],"class_list":{"0":"post-400750","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-donald-trump","9":"tag-headlines","10":"tag-middle-east","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-north-america","13":"tag-top-news","14":"tag-top-stories","15":"tag-topnews","16":"tag-topstories","17":"tag-uk-europe","18":"tag-us-politics"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/400750","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=400750"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/400750\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/400751"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=400750"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=400750"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=400750"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}