A country on the move and without a plan - Merz dismantles Washington’s Iran strategy

Friedrich Merz speaks plainly and hits a point that runs through this war. The United States entered it without knowing how to get out. That is exactly what the German chancellor says in front of students in Marsberg in the Sauerland. Afghanistan, Iraq, two decades, in the end no clean exit. The comparison is deliberate. Anyone who starts a conflict must also know how it ends. And that is exactly what is missing now. Merz goes further and describes the situation as it has developed. The Iranian leadership is stronger than Washington assumed. Militarily, politically, tactically. At the same time, talks are taking place that are not really talks. Iran does not negotiate openly, but buys time, postpones dates, lets counterparts travel in and leave again without results. That is exactly what happened when American representatives were sent to Islamabad. For Merz, this is not a diplomatic detail, but something with real consequences. An entire country is being played, he says, deliberately, step by step, especially by the Revolutionary Guards.

With that, he describes a conflict that is not only fought militarily. It is about control over time, over processes, over expectations. Washington is trying to build pressure, but Tehran turns that pressure around and uses it. Whoever decides when talks happen also decides who reacts. And whoever reacts appears weaker, no matter how strong they actually are.

Germany remains in a clear position. Support is possible, but not now. Berlin signals that it could provide mine clearing vessels for the Strait of Hormuz, but only after the fighting has ended. No intervention in the middle of a conflict, no symbolic deployment without a perspective. First calm, then capability. A line that deliberately differs from Washington. What Merz is addressing goes beyond this moment. The war continues, but without direction. Talks take place without results. Decisions are made without a plan for what comes next. And from that, a situation emerges in which each side tries to slow the other down instead of moving forward.

In the end, one sentence remains. Not because it is extraordinary, but because it lands. A country that intervenes militarily without knowing how to get out loses control over its own course. And that is exactly what defines Trump. Lack of a plan.