"Iranians are clearly stronger than expected, and the Americans obviously do not have a truly convincing strategy even in negotiations," Merz said during a visit to a school in Marsberg, a town in his home region of Sauerland.
He stated that "the problem with such conflicts is always the same."
"You don't just have to go in; you have to get out again. We saw that very painfully in Afghanistan, over 20 years. We also saw it in Iraq," he said.
He added that the U.S. had clearly entered this war without any strategy.
"Especially because the Iranians are clearly negotiating very skillfullyโor simply very skillfully not negotiating. The Iranian leadership is humiliating an entire nation. It's a rather tangled situation at the moment. And it's costing us a lot of money. This conflict, this war against Iran, has a direct impact on our economic performance," the chancellor stated, as reported by dpa.