German chancellor endorses Israel doing the world's ‘dirty work' with airstrikes on Iran
Chancellor Friedrich Merz on Tuesday endorsed Israel's airstrikes on Iran, saying it was doing essential work for Germany and others.
'This is the dirty work that Israel is doing for all of us,' Merz told the ZDF broadcaster during an interview on the sidelines of the G7 summit in Alberta, Canada.
The phrasing came in response to a question from an interviewer who had used the term.
'We are also affected by this regime. This mullah regime has brought death and destruction to the world,' Merz added.
Israel's ambassador to Germany, Ron Prosor, lauded Merz's remarks.
5 'This is the dirty work that Israel is doing for all of us' said Merz during an interview.
ZUMAPRESS.com
'Chancellor Friedrich Merz clearly described the realities in the Middle East with his choice of words,' Prosor told German news agency DPA. He added that Iran's nuclear ambitions may be directed at Israel, 'but they threaten the security of the entire world.
'The missiles currently hitting Tel Aviv and Jerusalem also threaten Berlin, Paris and London,' Prosor said. The supply chain of terror must be interrupted.'
5 Israel's ambassador to Germany, Ron Prosor, lauded Merz's remarks.
via REUTERS
5 Prosor claims 'The missiles currently hitting Tel Aviv and Jerusalem also threaten Berlin, Paris and London.'
via REUTERS
Prosor noted that Iranian arms shipments and Houthi attacks on international shipping had decreased recently, showing that pressure is working. 'This is a litmus test for whether Europeans are willing to stand up for their values and interests independently.'
In the interview, Merz said he had 'the greatest respect for the fact that the Israeli army had the courage to do this, that the Israeli leadership had the courage to do this.'
In the German political establishment, Merz's remark prompted some rebuke by opposition leaders and members of the Social Democratic Party (SPD), the left-center coalition partner of his center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party.
5 Merz has 'the greatest respect for the fact that the Israeli army had the courage to do this, that the Israeli leadership had the courage to do this.'
Iranian Red Crescent/AFP via Getty Images
5 In the German political establishment, Merz's remark prompted some rebuke by opposition leaders and members of the Social Democratic Party.
via REUTERS
'When people are killed, Merz calls it dirty work. In doing so, he mocks the victims of war and violence,' Jan van Aken, leader of the Left Party, told the Süddeutsche Zeitung on Wednesday.
But within the CDU, senior party members defended Merz. 'What the chancellor expressed with his words was that it cannot be in the interest of all of us for a terrorist regime like the Iranian mullah regime to possess nuclear weapons,' one senior CDU official, Thorsten Frei, told the same newspaper.
Frei added that the threat isn't limited to the Middle East. 'Iran's missile technology is such that medium-range missiles can reach very long-range targets—even in Europe. That's why we can't pretend that none of this concerns us.'
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San Francisco Chronicle
an hour ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
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Iran has retaliated by firing 450 missiles and 1,000 drones at Israel, according to Israeli army estimates. Most have been shot down by Israel's multitiered air defenses, but at least 24 people in Israel have been killed and hundreds wounded. Worries rise over the perils of attacking Iran's nuclear reactors Addressing an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency warned against attacks on Iran's nuclear reactors, particularly its only commercial nuclear power plant in the southern city of Bushehr. 'I want to make it absolutely and completely clear: In case of an attack on the Bushehr nuclear power plant, a direct hit would result in a very high release of radioactivity to the environment,' said Rafael Grossi, chief of the U.N. nuclear watchdog. 'This is the nuclear site in Iran where the consequences could be most serious.' 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Israel has not targeted Iran's nuclear reactors, instead focusing its strikes on the main uranium enrichment facility at Natanz, centrifuge workshops near Tehran, laboratories in Isfahan and the country's Arak heavy water reactor southwest of the capital. Grossi has warned repeatedly that such sites should not be military targets. After initially reporting no visible damage from Israel's Thursday strikes on the Arak heavy water reactor, the IAEA on Friday said it had assessed 'key buildings at the facility were damaged,' including the distillation unit. The reactor was not operational and contained no nuclear material, so the damage posed no risk of contamination, the watchdog said. Iran previously agreed to limit its uranium enrichment and allow international inspectors access to its nuclear sites under a 2015 deal with the U.S., France, China, Russia, Britain and Germany in exchange for sanctions relief. But after Trump pulled the U.S. unilaterally out of the deal during his first term, Iran began enriching uranium up to 60% — a short, technical step away from weapons-grade levels of 90% — and restricting access to its nuclear facilities. Iran has long maintained its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes, but it is the only non-nuclear-weapon state to enrich uranium up to 60%. Israel is widely believed to be the only Middle Eastern country with a nuclear weapons program but has never acknowledged it. Israel said its warplanes hit dozens of military targets across Iran on Friday, including missile-manufacturing facilities, while an Iranian missile hit Israel's northern city of Haifa, sending plumes of smoke billowing over the Mediterranean port and wounding at least 31 people. Iranian state media reported explosions from Israeli strikes in an industrial area of Rasht, along the coast of the Caspian Sea. Israel's military had warned Iranians to evacuate the area around Rasht's Industrial City, southwest of the city's downtown. But with Iran's internet shut off — now for more than 48 hours — it's unclear how many people could see the message. The Israeli military believes it has destroyed most of Iran's ballistic missile launchers, contributing to the steady decline in Iranian attacks. But several of the roughly three dozen missiles that Israel said Iran fired on Friday slipped through the country's aerial defense system, setting off air-raid sirens across the country and sending shrapnel flying into a residential area in the southern city of Beersheba, a frequent target of Iranian missiles where a hospital was hit Thursday.
