Berlin [Germany], March 25: German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier on Tuesday sharply criticized the US-Israeli war on Iran as a violation of international law, saying there is "no reason" for Germany to align itself with the administration of US President Donald Trump.
The conflict was "a politically disastrous mistake" and "a truly avoidable, unnecessary war, if its aim was to stop Iran on the path to an atomic bomb," Steinmeier told an audience attending an event in Berlin marking the 75th anniversary of the re-establishment of the Foreign Office after World War II.
The Iran war is "contrary to international law," the German president stressed, adding there was little doubt that Washington's justification of an imminent attack on the United States is not supported.
Iran had never been further away from a nuclear armament than after the 2015 nuclear deal, he said. Steinmeier was involved in that agreement as foreign minister at the time. Trump terminated it during his first term as president. The German president criticized the new orientation of the Trump administration, arguing not only that Germany doesn't need to follow along but that even with a new US administration, the trans-Atlantic relationship is irrevocably changed.
"The rupture and the lost trust in American great power politics runs too deep," he said. Even a future US administration "will not simply be able to pick up again the role of the friendly hegemon" and of a guarantor of a liberal international order, he said.
"The current American administration has a different world view from ours, one that takes no account of established rules, partnerships and trust built up over time," Steinmeier said. While this had to be dealt with, "we have no reason whatsoever to align ourselves with this world view," he said.
Instead, the trans-Atlantic relationship must also "free itself from dependencies that make us vulnerable."
This applies first and foremost to security and technology, according to the president. Chancellor Friedrich Merz of the conservative Christian Democratic Union has clearly distanced himself from the Iran war, but unlike other European partners he has so far refrained from describing the US and Israeli attacks as a breach of international law.
Source: Qatar Tribune