Just over 35 hours after the US bombed Iranian nuclear facilities, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz addressed the issue in front of cameras for the first time. Merz spoke on Monday at an event organized by the Federation of German Industries (BDI) in Berlin, an engagement that had been scheduled for some time.

The event's title was "New Times, New Answers," and Merz uttered a sentence that hardly any chancellor would have said until recently: "There is no reason for us, nor for me personally, to criticize what Israel started a week ago. Nor is there any reason to criticize what America did last weekend. It is not without risk. But leaving things as they were was not an option either."

In other words: Not only Israel, but also the United States is now doing the "dirty work" in the fight against Iran. Merz used this phrase last week at the G7 summit in Canada to describe and praise the Israeli attacks. Not everybody in Germany liked this harsh choice of words.

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The German government spent most of Sunday trying to assess the new situation, with Merz speaking by phone with French President........

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