German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier has criticized the war by the United States and Israel against Iran as a violation of international law. "Our foreign policy will not become more convincing by failing to call a breach of international law what it is, a breach of international law," Steinmeier said on Tuesday in his keynote address marking the 75th anniversary of the re-establishment of the German Foreign Office in Berlin. "This war violates international law, there is little doubt about that." The President called on Germany and Europe to break free from existing dependencies on the United States.
With this statement, Steinmeier struck a different tone from the federal government, which has so far avoided classifying the war as a violation of international law. In his speech, the President sharply criticized the decision by US President Donald Trump and the Israeli government to go to war against Iran, describing the conflict as "a politically disastrous mistake, and, what frustrates me the most, an avoidable, an unnecessary war, if its goal was to stop Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons."
He referred to the conclusion of the international nuclear agreement with Iran in 2015, which was intended to halt the country's nuclear armament. "We were never as far removed from nuclear armament of Iran" as we were at that time, Steinmeier said. However, US President Trump allowed this agreement to collapse. "In the second year of his first term, President Trump terminated the agreement; in his second term, he is now waging war." There had been no concrete threat from Iran to the United States.
Steinmeier urged Germany and Europe to break free from existing dependencies on the United States. "The current American administration has a completely different worldview than we do," the President said. It is a worldview "that takes no account of established rules, of partnership, and of trust that has been built over time."
"That the American government is determined to weaken the liberal, united Europe has been told to our faces in Munich a year ago," the President said, referring to the speech by US Vice President J.D. Vance at the Munich Security Conference.
Germany and Europe must not count on a return to the once-close transatlantic relationship. "Too deep is the break and the loss of trust in American great power politic, not only among alliance partners, but worldwide," Steinmeier said. "Even a future US administration will no longer be able to simply pick up where it left off in the role of the 'benevolent hegemon' and guarantor of a liberal international order."
Steinmeier stated that the common foundation of values in the transatlantic relationship no longer exists. In past decades, differences with the United States could always be bridged because both sides knew that "there is a common foundation we can refer to, on which we can debate our differences, to which we can return." Today, this no longer applies. "The West remains a valuable normative ideal. But the West as a political reality does not currently exist."
The President warned against Europe adopting the worldview of the current US administration as a model. While Germany cannot change the fact that the Trump administration is taking a different path, "we must deal with it, yes. But we have no reason whatsoever to align ourselves with this worldview."
"In the transatlantic relationship, we must break free from dependencies that make us vulnerable," Steinmeier continued. "This primarily concerns security and technology: achieving European sovereignty in defense and technology is a generational project." In the technological sphere, "our dependency on the United States is even greater, which makes it all the more imperative that we do not accept it."
Breaking free from these dependencies is a task for many years, Steinmeier acknowledged. "But the magnitude of the task must no longer be a reason for delay, neither for us nor for our European partners." In light of the United States' departure from the transatlantic partnership, Russia's aggressive stance, and the crises in the Middle East, what is needed is "a united and strong Europe," Steinmeier said. "This is no longer just a mandate from our past; it is the geopolitical imperative of our time."
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