According to a recent article on DW.com, Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said Germany will not be taking part in a US-led mission to secure oil tanker ships sailing near Iran. The US ambassador in Berlin slammed the decision, saying Germany has responsibilities.
Germany will not participate in a naval mission in the Strait of Hormuz that is led by the United States, Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said on Wednesday.
“Germany will not take part in the sea mission presented and planned by the United States,” Maas told reporters during a trip to Poland.
The German government said it remains in close consultation with France and the UK over a European approach to the freedom of navigation crisis in the Persian Gulf.
But US Ambassador to Germany Richard Grenell condemned the decision and called on Berlin to step up. “Germany is the biggest economic power in Europe,” he told the Augsburger Allgemeine newspaper. “This success brings global responsibilities.”
“America has sacrificed a lot to help Germany remain part of the West,” Grenell said, adding that Americans were paying billions of dollars to keep 34,000 soldiers stationed in Germany.
In explaining the decision not to join the mission, Maas said that the German government believes the US strategy of exercising “maximum pressure” against Iran “is wrong.”
He added that Berlin wants to avoid further escalating the situation in the region and that the government wants to focus on a diplomatic solution to tensions with Iran, emphasizing that “there is no military solution.”
Germany and its European allies are trying to salvage the 2015 Iran nuclear deal after US President Donald Trump withdrew from the pact and reimposed sanctions last year.
Read the full article on DW.com >>
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