Germany's foreign minister says President Donald Trump is "consciously accepting" that unilateral decisions such as the US withdrawal from the 2015 Iran nuclear deal with six world powers could hurt European allies.
Heiko Maas was quoted in an interview Friday with the daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung as saying that the US remains Germany's closest partner outside Europe but that Berlin must explore "new paths" in seeking partners that want to preserve a multilateral world order, AP reported.
Trump pulled out of the Iran nuclear deal last month and announced the “highest level” of sanctions against the country.
Maas said that there are differences between Berlin and Washington which Germany “cannot hush them up".
Maas specifically pointed at the pulling out from the historic nuclear deal, saying it was particularly critical for international relations and reliability.
Fundamental Change
"We were used to being able to rely on agreements, and this has changed fundamentally," he told the media.
Maas stressed that Trump’s policy brings far-reaching changes, as he has turned down the multilateral rules-of-play, pursuing American interests with one-sided actions.
The key principle in this mission would be to secure an "alliance with those who want to preserve the multilateral world order." He pointed to Canada as well as countries in Africa, Latin America and Asia as potential partners.
Germany, along with fellow European signatories France and Britain, has vowed to preserve the Iran deal. Maas said that, with his unilateral decisions, Trump "is consciously accepting that the downsides will directly affect Europe."
He added that the Iran decision affects European security interests because "Iran belongs to our extended neighborhood."
Germany’s Angela Merkel said on Wednesday that she would try to talk to Trump about their differences on Iran and trade tariffs during a Group of Seven summit in Canada on June 8-9.
“I will of course try to speak to the US president about the current problems that we have overall, in particular on Iran and on trade tariffs,” Merkel told the Bundestag lower house of parliament, Reuters reported.
