<p >German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has praised Israel’s ongoing military offensive against Iran, stressing that these operations remain&nbsp;strongly in line with the interests of the Western world, and that the Israeli government and armed forces were courageously doing the “dirty work” on the West’s behalf.&nbsp;During an interview on the sidelines of the G7 summit, he stated: “This is the dirty work that Israel is doing for all of us. We are also victims of this regime,” claiming that&nbsp;“this is the dirty work that Israel is doing for all of us. We are also victims of this regime,” and that&nbsp;“this mullah regime has brought death and destruction to the world.” “I can only say: the greatest respect for the fact that the Israeli army and the Israeli leadership had the courage to do this,” he added. Speaking in a separate interview, he stated: “I assume that the attacks of the last few days have already weakened the mullah regime considerably and that it is unlikely to return to its former strength, making the future of the country uncertain.” Israel’s assault on Iran has received strong support from across the European continent, although responses have been more divided in the United States.</p><p ><img src="https://militarywatchmagazine.com/m/articles/2025/06/18/article_685285f96053f5_65323162.jpg" title="Israeli F-35s and F-15s Refuel During Simulated Attack on Iran" ></p><p >Germany has been a leading supporter of Israel’s ongoing war efforts against a number of state and non-state actors, with multiple sources having reported that German personnel on the ground in Lebanon played key roles in providing intelligence on the local paramilitary group Hezbollah to Israeli forces for their <a href="https://militarywatchmagazine.com/article/israel-invasion-lebanon-phosphorous-bombardment" target="_blank">operations in late 2024</a>. Multiple sources have also reported the operations of German aerial tankers in the Middle East providing aerial refuelling support to facilitate Israeli attacks on Iranian targets from June 13. The short ranges of Israeli F-16s, which form the large majority of the country’s fighter fleet, and the small size of the Israeli tanker fleet, had led multiple analysts to conclude that the Israeli Air Force would have needed to rely on tanker support on a considerable scale to able to deploy over 200 fighters for its attacks. Germany’s growing militarisation since 2022, which included <a href="https://militarywatchmagazine.com/article/german-army-45th-armoured-brigade-lithuania" >initiating</a> the first <a href="https://militarywatchmagazine.com/article/german-army-45th-armoured-brigade-lithuania" target="_blank">permanent foreign deployment</a> of German ground forces in May just 800 kilometres from Moscow, is also expected to lead it to play a greater role in Western efforts to ensure a Western-favouring balance of power in the Middle East, to which Iran remains the primary challenger. &nbsp;</p>
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