{"id":169288,"date":"2026-04-28T14:12:55","date_gmt":"2026-04-28T12:12:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/frihetsnytt.se\/?p=169288"},"modified":"2026-04-28T14:12:57","modified_gmt":"2026-04-28T12:12:57","slug":"merz-iran-fornedrar-usa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/frihetsnytt.se\/en\/merz-iran-fornedrar-usa\/","title":{"rendered":"Merz: \u201dIran is humiliating the US\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"<h5 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>German Chancellor Friedrich Merz is unusually critical of the US handling of the conflict with Iran, saying in an appearance that the Americans lack a clear strategy and that the country is now being \u201dhumiliated\u201d by Iran's leadership.\u00a0<\/strong><\/h5>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">According to <strong>Friedrich Merz<\/strong> Iran has proved stronger and more resilient than Washington had anticipated. He also warned that the conflict risks turning into another protracted war, similar to the efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>- At the moment, I can't see what strategic exit the Americans are seeking,<\/em> Merz told students at a school in Marsberg.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">- <em>Especially since the Iranians are obviously very good at negotiating, or perhaps very good at not negotiating, and let the Americans go to Islamabad only to send them home with nothing. A whole nation is being humiliated by the Iranian leadership, especially by the so-called Revolutionary Guard.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Supported the war first - but the economy is squeezing<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Merz initially welcomed the US and Israeli attack on Iran and said Germany shared the goal of regime change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But the supportive tone has since cooled as rising energy prices hit the already strained German economy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The statement is also seen as a sign of growing rifts between the US and European allies. With even close partners publicly questioning Washington's line, it shows how quickly public opinion can shift when the reality of economic consequences catches up.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Merz turns on the US: Energy crisis hits Germany hard - now he rages against Iran strategy and Trump's failure<\/p>","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":144982,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[207,1522,205],"tags":[4115,291,194,186],"class_list":["post-169288","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-utrikes","category-mellan","category-nyheter","tag-friedrich-merz","tag-iran","tag-tyskland","tag-usa"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/frihetsnytt.se\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169288","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/frihetsnytt.se\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/frihetsnytt.se\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/frihetsnytt.se\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/frihetsnytt.se\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=169288"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/frihetsnytt.se\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169288\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/frihetsnytt.se\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/144982"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/frihetsnytt.se\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=169288"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/frihetsnytt.se\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=169288"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/frihetsnytt.se\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=169288"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}