German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said on Monday that he was “grateful” to US President Donald Trump for delaying the announced strikes against Iran’s power plants and energy infrastructure for five days. The AFP agency drew attention to it, reports TASR.
- German Chancellor Friedrich Merz is grateful to Donald Trump for delaying the attacks.
- Trump postponed planned US attacks on Iranian power plants by five days.
- Trump says the United States and Iran have had productive talks recently.
- Iran’s Fars agency denies any direct negotiations between Tehran and Washington.
- Germany refuses direct involvement in the American-Israeli war despite the alliance.
“I expressed to him my concerns about the reported attacks on power plants in Iran,” Merz said in Berlin about his Sunday phone call with Trump. “I am grateful that he announced today that he is postponing these attacks for another five days,” added the chancellor.
Trump announced the decision not to attack facilities in Iran on his Truth Social platform earlier Monday. He stated that “The United States and Iran have had very good and productive talks over the past two days about the full and final resolution of our hostilities in the Middle East.”. The Iranian news agency Fars refuted his claims, saying that Tehran is not conducting any direct negotiations with the US.
Merz welcomed that Trump “opens up the possibility of immediate and direct contact with the Iranian leadership”. He confirmed that he had offered the US president Berlin’s diplomatic help in mediating the Middle East conflict, which has sent global energy prices soaring and sparked fears of serious economic fallout. “We have good contacts throughout the region,” declared the German chancellor.
“We are not yet at the stage where we are discussing joint measures, but I have offered to cooperate and we will do everything in our power to achieve a ceasefire in the region as soon as possible,” concluded Merz.
The German leader repeatedly condemned the Iranian leadership and initially supported the American-Israeli war. But he has since expressed growing concern about the cost of the conflict, AFP reports. Germany, along with other European members of the North Atlantic Alliance (NATO), have also repeatedly emphasized that they will not be directly involved in the war, which has been going on for more than three weeks.
