Germany Says Trump's Been ‘Humiliated' by Iran in War
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has said the leadership in Tehran is humiliating U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration, his strongest criticism yet of the United States’ approach to the war in Iran.
Merz had offered qualified support at the start of the joint U.S.-Israeli strikes against the Islamic Republic, saying Berlin also wanted to see regime change in Tehran after Iranian authorities launched a brutal crackdown against protesters.
But with no breakthrough imminent on unblocking the Strait of Hormuz, which Iran has essentially held captive, and Germany reeling from the conflict’s economic costs, Merz issued his fiercest criticism of the U.S. effort yet.
“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. He added, “A whole nation is being humiliated by the Iranian leadership.”
Merz also accused Trump of going into the war without any strategy and warned it could degenerate into a quagmire, like the conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq. He called the war “a pretty tangled situation” that was “costing us a great deal of money.”
The Iran war has hurt energy importers, including the European Union, whose members have turned to sources outside the Middle East for oil and gas supplies, such as the U.S. and Norway. Since the start of the war, EU members have had to pay 25 billion euros ($29.2 billion) more for oil and gas. On Tuesday, the cost of Brent crude, the global benchmark, was $108 a barrel.
Germany had previously rejected U.S. calls for NATO to join the conflict, describing it as “not NATO’s war,” although Berlin has suggested it could play a limited role in securing the Strait of Hormuz-including the use of German minesweepers after the conflict ends.
This followed Trump’s warning in March that NATO allies could face a “very bad future” if they refused to help secure the critical waterway through which one-fifth of the world’s energy transited before the war.
Iran’s Strait of Hormuz Proposal
On Monday, Iran proposed to the U.S. reopening the Strait of Hormuz and ending the war, while postponing negotiations on its nuclear program. The proposal would not force Iran to make concessions regarding its highly enriched uranium but would grant more time to discuss these nuclear issues.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Trump had discussed the Iranian proposal with national security aides and that the U.S. wanted to ensure freedom of navigation through the strait and remove Iran’s highly enriched uranium.
The U.S. president had previously described Iran’s proposal as “much better” than previous ones but still “not enough.”
Axios reported on Monday that Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told Pakistani, Egyptian, Turkish and Qatari mediators in recent days that there was no consensus among Iran’s leaders on how to address U.S. demands.
In its assessment on Monday, the Institute for the Study of War said it was unclear whether Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps Commander Major General Ahmad Vahidi and his inner circle, who dominate Iranian decision-making, support the new proposal.
The Washington, D.C., think tank wrote, “Iran appears to be attempting to exploit its leverage over the Strait of Hormuz to end the war in a way that removes the U.S. blockade of Iranian ports without Iran having to make nuclear concessions.”
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This story was originally published April 28, 2026 at 7:02 AM.