Trump lashed out at Merz after his harsh criticism of the Iran war. “He doesn't know what he's talking about”
US President Donald Trump criticized German Chancellor Friedrich Merz on Tuesday over the war in Iran, a day after the head of government in Berlin said the Iranians were humiliating the United States in negotiations to end the conflict, writes Reuters.
“German Chancellor Friedrich Merz thinks it's OK for Iran to have a nuclear weapon. He doesn't know what he's talking about!” Trump wrote in a post on his Truth Social social network, misinterpreting Merz's position.
The Federal Chancellor of Germany stated that Iran should not have nuclear weapons, Reuters points out.
Merz said Monday that Iran's leaders were “humiliating” the United States and prompting US officials to travel to Pakistan and then leave without results, in an unusually harsh rebuke of the Middle East conflict.
Merz said he did not see an exit strategy for the US in the war with Iran, his comments pointing to deep divisions between Washington and its European NATO allies, which had already deepened over Ukraine and other issues.
Merz's statements
“The Iranians are clearly stronger than expected and the Americans obviously have no really convincing strategy in the negotiations,” Merz said during a visit to a school in Marsberg, a town in his home region of Sauerland, according to Deutsche Welle.
“The problem with conflicts like this is always the same: you don't just go in, you have to get out. We saw it, very painfully, in Afghanistan for 20 years. We saw it in Iraq,” he said.
“At this point, I don't see what strategic exit the Americans will choose, especially since the Iranians are obviously negotiating very skillfully,” Merz added.
The German chancellor added that “an entire nation is humiliated by the Iranian leadership, especially by the so-called Revolutionary Guards.”
According to him, “the Germans and the Europeans were not consulted at the beginning of the US and Israeli attacks on Iran.”
Merz had already expressed his skepticism about the war launched by US President Donald Trump. “If I had known the situation was going to go on like this for five or six weeks and gradually get worse, I would have told him even more categorically,” he said.
