German president calls Iran war a disastrous mistake, in rare rebuke of Trump

The Iran war is a “disastrous mistake” that breaches international law, Germany’s president says in an unusually blunt rebuke of US President Donald Trump’s foreign policy, which he says marked a rupture for German ties with its biggest postwar ally.

In a scathing verbal attack, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, whose largely ceremonial role allows him to speak more freely than politicians, takes a far more critical line than Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who has skirted questions on the war’s legality.

“Our foreign policy does not become more convincing just because we do not call a breach of international law a breach of international law,” Steinmeier, a former foreign minister from the center-left Social Democratic Party, says in a speech at the foreign ministry.

“We must address this with regard to the war in Iran. For, in my view, this war is contrary to international law,” he says, adding he has little doubt that the justification of the imminent nature of an attack on US targets does not hold water.

Calling the war unnecessary and a “politically disastrous mistake,” Steinmeier says Trump’s second term marks a rupture in German foreign relations as profound as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

“Just as I believe there will be no going back in relations with Russia to before February 24, 2022, so too do I believe there will be no going back in transatlantic relations to before January 20, 2025,” says Steinmeier.