{"id":48957,"date":"2026-03-16T17:46:48","date_gmt":"2026-03-16T17:46:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/?p=48957"},"modified":"2026-03-16T17:46:51","modified_gmt":"2026-03-16T17:46:51","slug":"iran-war-not-a-matter-for-nato-says-germanys-merz","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/2026\/03\/16\/iran-war-not-a-matter-for-nato-says-germanys-merz\/","title":{"rendered":"Iran war &#8216;not a matter for Nato&#8217;, says Germany&#8217;s Merz"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>European countries have demanded to know more about US president Donald Trump\u2019s plans for the war on Iran and when the conflict might end as they weighed whether to agree to his call to send warships to help shore up security in the Persian Gulf.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As European Union foreign ministers gathered to discuss Trump\u2019s demand, German foreign minister Johann Wadephul said it\u2019s important for the US and&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/israel\">Israel<\/a>&nbsp;to define \u201cwhen they consider the military aims of their deployment to have been reached.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWe need more clarity here,\u201d Wadephul told reporters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">German chancellor Friedrich Merz\u2019s spokesperson, Stefan Kornelius, underlined that \u201cit is not Nato\u2019s war. Nato is an alliance to defend the alliance area.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Kornelius said that Berlin \u201ctook note\u201d of Trump\u2019s comments, but added: \u201cThe United States did not consult us before this war, and so we believe this is not a matter for Nato or the German government.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Meanwhile, Estonian foreign minister Margus Tsahkna also said that US allies in Europe want to understand Trump\u2019s \u201cstrategic goals. What will be the plan?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And Polish foreign minister Radek Sikorski invited the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/trump-administration\">Trump administration<\/a>&nbsp;to go through the proper channels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cIf there is a request via Nato, we will of course out of respect and sympathy for our American allies consider it very carefully,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>European countries have demanded to know more about US president Donald Trump\u2019s plans for the war on Iran and when the conflict might end as they weighed whether to agree to his call to send warships to help shore up security in the Persian Gulf. As European Union foreign ministers gathered to discuss Trump\u2019s demand, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":48958,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_post_source_name":"","_post_source_url":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[6728,8989,1425,10767,11337,6621,9505,1195,5345,66,2264,5579,3095,12998,5572,6864,4802,1762,3805,5655,13182,7231,9262,6348,12992,11331,2858,5251],"class_list":["post-48957","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-news","tag-alliance","tag-berlin","tag-chancellor","tag-conflict","tag-demand","tag-europe","tag-european","tag-european-union","tag-foreign-minister","tag-germany","tag-government","tag-gulf","tag-israel","tag-merz","tag-military","tag-ministers","tag-nato","tag-persian-gulf","tag-president","tag-security","tag-trump-administration","tag-union","tag-united-states","tag-us","tag-us-allies","tag-us-president","tag-us-president-donald-trump","tag-war"],"blocksy_meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48957","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48957"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48957\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":48959,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48957\/revisions\/48959"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48958"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48957"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48957"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48957"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}