German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said on Thursday he didn’t want U.S.-Iran war to position any further strain on relations between the US and its European NATO partners.
“We don’t want – I don’t want – NATO to separate. NATO is a guarantor of our security, including and above all in Europe,” he said, chatting with journalists.
He added he had encouraged U.S. President Donald Trump in a call to pursue negotiations with Iran with urgency.
Germany was resuming direct talks with Iranian leadership in Tehran, Merz said in Berlin.
Merz said on Thursday that Germany has a fundamental interest in a diplomatic solution of the Middle East crisis.
NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte has briefed some capitals that Trump wants concrete commitments inside the subsequent few days for help securing the Strait of Hormuz, two European diplomats told Reuters on Thursday.
Rutte met with Trump in Washington on Wednesday, amid tensions inside the alliance over the Iran war.
“We note the frustration in Washington, but they didn’t seek the advice of allies either before or after starting this war,” said one among the diplomats.
“NATO as such wouldn’t play a job within the war against Iran, but allies wish to be helpful in searching for longer-term solutions for Hormuz. With negotiations ongoing with Iran, this may very well be helpful,” the diplomat said.
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The U.S. president has repeatedly called NATO a “paper tiger” and threatened to withdraw from the 32-member transatlantic alliance in recent weeks, arguing that Washington’s European allies have relied on U.S. security guarantees while providing inadequate support for the U.S.-Israeli bombing campaign in Iran.
Although Trump said on Tuesday the attacks on Iran can be paused under a two-week ceasefire, the fallout from the conflict has continued to strain ties.
Trump posted on Truth Social after the meeting in capitalized letters that “NATO wasn’t there when we would have liked them, they usually won’t be there if we want them again.”
Dutchman Rutte, known in Europe as a “Trump whisperer” and who has faced criticism for often praising the U.S. leader, said in an interview with CNN after Wednesday’s meeting that Trump “is clearly disenchanted with many NATO allies, and I can see his point.”
Britain is leading a gaggle of around 40 countries searching for to provide you with a military and diplomatic plan to reopen and safeguard Hormuz but there’s little indication it is going to yield any near-term breakthrough. French President Emmanuel Macron said on Wednesday about 15 countries were planning to facilitate the resumption of traffic through the strait.
France’s foreign minister Jean-Noel Barrot said on Thursday that Hormuz can be unable to completely reopen until there was a long-lasting agreement between the U.S. and Iran, while Italy and Britain said Iran’s position that it could impose a toll to cross the strait was unacceptable.
“We’ve an ongoing track on Hormuz, which is essentially unrelated to what happened within the White House yesterday,” said a 3rd European diplomat.
“We all know the urgency on the U.S. side, and we all know that Rutte is trying to position himself in a way that he’s helpful in that conversation. We’re willing to make the appropriate noises and even the appropriate actions down the road, but ultimately the issue isn’t to please the U.S. but to have the appropriate conditions in place,” the diplomat added.