Former Chancellor Gerhard Schröder (SPD) has made it clear that he backs Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s (CDU) stance of refusing the United States any military support in the Iran conflict. In an interview with the “Süddeutsche Zeitung”, Schröder said, “You can’t do that-absolutely not” when asked whether Germany should join a military intervention to restore oil traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, which Iran has blocked.
He added that he finds the actions of the United States and Israelis “exasperating” and that the conflict “is essentially a war fought on ideological grounds that you can’t truly win” reminding him of the Vietnam War. Schröder warned that people underestimated how firmly established the religious regime had become after so many years, noting that, from many Iranians’ perspective, the attack “seems to strike at a divine representative, not just the leader of a civilian power”.
Schröder also admitted that while he had opposed the U.S. Iraq war in 2003, he, like Merz now, has allowed the unrestricted use of the U.S. airbase in Ramstein (Rhineland‑Palatinate). “Many in my party wanted me to take a hard line, but if they had told me to shut the airfield down-what would that do? It would mean the end of German‑American relations” he said. “Of course we gave the airfield and overflight rights, but the important thing was that we did not participate in the war”.