BERLIN: German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said Wednesday that if the United States had consulted Berlin about the US-Israel war against Iran, “we would have advised against taking this course of action”.
“We share with Israel and the United States the objective that Iran should no longer pose a threat in future,” Merz told parliament.
“For years and decades, the Iranian regime has broken rule after rule, spread terror across the world and destabilised the neighbourhood. This regime bears responsibility for the current crisis in the region,” he said.
“At the same time, however, we have also made it clear that we still have many questions regarding this war,” Merz said, adding that the US and Israel had shown “no convincing plan as to how this operation could succeed”.
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Washington had “not consulted” Germany about the war, Merz noted.
“We would have advised against taking this course of action as it has been pursued so far,” he said, reaffirming that “we have stated that, for as long as the war continues, we will not take part in it”.
Merz also called for an end to the conflict as quickly as possible.
“Europe has an interest in a swift end to the war, in preventing further regional escalation, and in avoiding the disintegration of Iran as a state,” he said.
Such a collapse would “severely compromise our security … would have negative repercussions for our energy supply and could potentially trigger massive migration flows”, he said.
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