Germany's Merz: US 'humiliated' by Iran, no end in sight to conflict

The United States is being "humiliated" by Iran, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said on Monday, warning that the conflict is not likely to end soon.

"The Iranians are clearly stronger than expected and the Americans clearly have no truly convincing strategy in the negotiations either," Merz said during a school visit in Marsberg, a town in his home region of Sauerland.

"The problem with conflicts like this is always: you don't just have to get in, you have to get out again. We saw that very painfully in Afghanistan, for 20 years. We saw it in Iraq."

The US "quite obviously went into this war without any strategy," Merz said, making it all the harder to bring the conflict to an end.

"Especially since the Iranians are obviously negotiating very skilfully — or simply very skilfully not negotiating," he added. "A whole nation is being humiliated by the Iranian leadership."

'A pretty tangled situation'

"It is at the moment a pretty tangled situation," the chancellor said. "And it is costing us a great deal of money. This conflict, this war against Iran, has a direct impact on our economic output."

Germany is maintaining its offer to deploy minesweepers to help reopen the Strait of Hormuz, which is central to global oil supplies, he said. The prerequisite for that, however, was that hostilities must first come to an end.

The chancellor's visit to the Carolus-Magnus-Gymnasium in Marsberg was part of the EU Project Day, during which schools across Germany hold events focused on the European Union.

The project day was launched in 2007 by the German EU Council Presidency.