Merz insists on a diplomatic solution at Netanyahu

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Merz insists on a diplomatic solution at Netanyahu

Merz is on the phone with Netanyahu. The Israeli Minister of Defense declares the Iranian head as a war goal. All developments in the news blog.

Thursday, June 19, 2025

Chancellor Friedrich Merz made calls to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and, according to his environment, warned a diplomatic solution in conflict with Iran. The conversation on Wednesday evening took about twenty minutes, it said from government circles. Merz has expressed understanding of the threat situation of Israel and insisted on the fact that the Iranian nuclear program had to be hired and the conflict had to be brought under control.

It was also about the Gaza war. Merz referred to the explanation of the G7 summit in Canada from Monday, in which a ceasefire is requested. At the summit, Merz also said “greatest respect” that Israel had the courage to act against the Iranian nuclear program.

According to Israeli military, Iran fired rockets on Israel again this afternoon. According to civil defense, the warning sirens howled in the north of the country, including in the port city of Haifa. The TV broadcaster Kan reported more than ten fired rockets. The Israeli emergency services stomach David Adom announced that there was initially no information about injured or stroking. Iran had already targeted Haifa with earlier attacks and also hit a refinery. Three employees had also been killed.

The Israeli army has apparently destroyed almost half of the launch ramps for ballistic rockets in Iran. This reports the “Jerusalem Post”, citing security circles. Army spokesman Effie Defrin explained that “hundreds” of the launch ramps had been destroyed.

For Israel that would be a significant step in the war against Iran. The Mullah regime is said to have thousands of rockets, most recently dozens of the floors were fired on Israel in Salves. Most of the rockets are intercepted by Israeli air defense, but not all. However, if there are too many rockets on the approach, Israel’s aircraft systems could be overloaded, which would lead to more impacts. The more launch ramps in Iran are destroyed, the less extensive the rocket attacks can be on Israel.

Russia warned the United States about military intervention in the war between Israel and Iran. Such a possible interference could continue to turn the “escalation spiral” and expand the conflict overall, said Kremllager Dmitri Peskow at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum.

According to Kremlangaben, President Vladimir Putin also made a phone call with China’s party and head of party XI Jinping about the situation in the Middle East. Accordingly, XI spoke out for Putin’s possible intermediary between Israel and Iran, which Moscow had also offered. Putin wants to visit China on September 2.

Russia will also not stop working on the Iranian Buschehr nuclear power plant, as Putin said at night at a meeting with representatives of great news agencies. According to this, around 600 specialists from Russia are still working there. “We won’t go,” said Putin. Moscow supports the peaceful use of nuclear energy in Iran, but rejects nuclear weapons there.

In Israel there is internal criticism about the communication strategy of your own army. A representative of the Israeli military said that a military spokesman had made “a mistake” when he announced an attack on the nuclear situation in Iranian Buschehr.