German Foreign Minister Urges Iran to Reopen Strait of Hormuz

German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul has urged Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and halt its nuclear weapons programme. He conveyed this during a telephone conversation with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi. “I emphasised that Germany supports a negotiated solution,” Wadephul stated in a post on social media platform X regarding the phone call on Wednesday (3 May) local time. “As a close ally of the United States, we share the same goals: Iran must fully and verifiably abandon nuclear weapons and immediately reopen the Strait of Hormuz, as also demanded by US Foreign Minister Marco Rubio,” Wadephul added, according to AFP news agency on Monday (4 May 2026). In recent days, Wadephul and other German officials have sought to defuse the dispute between US President Donald Trump and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz. Merz stated on 27 April that Iran had “embarrassed” Washington at the negotiating table. This comment sparked a series of angry responses from Washington. In response, the US announced that 5,000 of its troops would be relocated from US military bases in Germany. Trump also announced that US tariffs on cars and trucks from the European Union would rise from 15% to 25% in the coming days. Trump accused the entire European Union bloc of failing to comply with a trade agreement signed last summer, even as the pact undergoes the bloc’s legislative process. The newly announced tariffs will severely impact the German automotive industry. Meanwhile, efforts to end the US-Israel war in Iran appear to show no progress since the ceasefire was imposed in early April. There are even growing concerns about increased escalation. Trump said he would review a new plan submitted by Tehran but added that he “could not imagine it being acceptable”. He further stated that, in his view, Iran “has not yet paid a sufficiently high price”. In a statement on Sunday (3 May), Iran’s Revolutionary Guard said the United States must choose between “an impossible operation or a bad deal with the Islamic Republic of Iran”.