Germany laments Trump's 'avoidable, unnecessary' Iran war

Marking 75 years since the Foreign Ministry's post-war reformation, Germany's president and foreign minister warned of "profound change" in ties with Berlin's most important ally, the US, amid an "unnecessary" Iran war.

by Mark Hallam with AFP, dpa, KNA, Reuters

President Frank-Walter Steinmeier and Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul criticized the US and Israel's attacks on Iran at an event in Berlin on Tuesday, with Steinmeier calling the war a "politically fateful mistake" that constituted a "breach of international law." 

The German leaders were speaking at an event in Berlin marking the 75th anniversary of the post-war reformation of the German Foreign Ministry in 1951, almost two years after the formal creation of post-war West Germany.

Wadephul reminded the audience of the enormous US role in defeating Nazi Germany, rebuilding post-war Germany and assisting in reunification as the Cold War drew to a close, but nevertheless warned of "new epochal challenges" amid the increasingly erratic foreign policy of President Donald Trump's second term. 

What did Foreign Minister Wadephul say about transatlantic ties?

Conservative CDU politician Wadephul warned the audience not to underestimate the perils of the age, more than 80 years after the end of World War II and more than 25 years after the end of the Cold War. 

"Our own security is possibly in more concrete danger than it ever was in the last 75 years," Wadephul argued, citing dangers like an increasingly aggressive Russia and escalating tensions with core ally the US under Trump. 

For the first time in generations, he said that Europe had to "deal with two wars right on its borders at the same time: a Russian war of aggression against its neighbor Ukraine on our own continent, and a war in the Middle East and the Gulf." 

But Wadephul stressed that given these "new epochal challenges," diplomacy was "more important than ever." 

"Our transatlantic relationship finds itself in the midst of a profound change: I myself find many things confusing, and some of them irritating," Wadephul said, avoiding specifics. "The international order that we've known for the last 75 years is under pressure — some people are trying to destroy it." 

However, the foreign minister also urged the audience not to forget the wider US contribution to the last 75 years of German history amid the noise and volatility of Trump's second term. 

"I plead that we never forget that it was above all the US which liberated us from the Nazi regime, shaped the nascent Federal Republic of Germany [after World War II] and enabled our reunification [after the Cold War]," he said. 

What did President Steinmeier say about the war against Iran? 

President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, whose ceremonial role as a non-partisan head of state traditionally involves voicing "hard truths" that a government minister might not dare to, struck a more critical tone than Wadephul when discussing developments in the Middle East and the Gulf. 

"Our foreign policy does not become more convincing when we do not call a breach of international law a breach of international law," Steinmeier said. "This war is, by my estimation, a breach of international law."

He said that international law was not "some old glove we should slip off just because others do." 

"There is little doubt that at least the justification of an imminent attack on the US does not hold water — that even seems to be the mood in parts of the American services," Steinmeier said, perhaps partly in reference to the resignation of Trump's counterterrorism chief Joe Kent last week. 

What was more, Steinmeier said, the war was a "politically fateful mistake ... a truly avoidable, unnecessary war, if its goal really was to stop Iran on its path towards a nuclear weapon."

The president argued that other potentially more effective diplomatic routes could have led towards this goal, 11 years after he was one of the foreign ministers involved in brokering the now-defunct JCPOA agreement with Iran that Trump tore up in his first term. 

What was Tuesday's event in Berlin commemorating? 

Tuesday's ceremony was commemorating 75 years since the former West Germany reestablished a Foreign Ministry, in its then-capital city Bonn, and began to conduct international relations again in the aftermath of World War II. 

The Federal Republic of Germany was first founded in May 1949, but it was not immediately permitted to reestablish diplomatic relations and conduct foreign policy, first focusing on domestic issues. 

The occupying powers in former West Germany — the US, France and the UK — later allowed Chancellor Konrad Adenauer's government to start reestablishing diplomatic relations and reform a Foreign Ministry, with March 15, 1951 the formal foundation date. 

The development was seen as a symbolically significant step in the rehabiliation of German politics and the increasing autonomy of the post-war government. 

Initially, Adenauer himself took on the role of foreign minister in addition to the chancellor's position, another sign of the gravity attached to the role. 

A physical base was built in Bonn in the coming years at Adenauerallee 99-103; it opened for business between 1954 and 55. 

After reunification and the reestablishment of Berlin — divided between East and West Germany during the Cold War — as the Federal Republic's capital city, the Foreign Ministry's headquarters was moved east. 

Edited by: Wesley Dockery

Mark Hallam News and current affairs writer and editor with DW since 2006.@marks_hallam