Talks about the nuclear program have not made any progress recently.

Amid the war between Israel and Iran, German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul is launching a diplomatic initiative to de-escalate the situation. Together with his counterparts from France and Great Britain, he plans to meet with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Aragchi for talks in Geneva on Friday, according to diplomatic sources in Berlin.

Wadephul said at a meeting with Jordan's foreign minister, Ayman al-Safadi, in Berlin that he, along with his French counterpart Jean-Noël Barrot, British Foreign Secretary David Lammy, and EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas, had recently made an offer to Aragchi to negotiate. They remain willing to negotiate a solution. However, for this to happen, Iran must urgently take action and "take confidence-building and verifiable measures, for example, by making the leadership in Tehran credible that it does not seek nuclear weapons." Wadephul's message: "It is never too late to come to the negotiating table if you come with sincere intentions."

Last Friday, Israel launched a major attack on its arch-enemy Iran. Since then, the Israeli armed forces have repeatedly attacked targets in the Islamic Republic, while the Iranian armed forces, in turn, have fired missiles at the nuclear-armed Israel. According to Israel, the main goal of the war is to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons. The Iranian leadership, however, has denied for years that it is seeking to build nuclear weapons and insists on the right to use nuclear power for peaceful purposes.

With his initiative, Wadephul aims to bring the so-called E3 states of Germany, France, and Great Britain – which have been trying to negotiate with Tehran about its nuclear program for years – and Iran back to the table. The negotiators had made no progress on the key issue of uranium enrichment.

By further enriching the radioactive heavy metal to a higher level of purity, Iran had recently fueled fears that it might soon have enough nuclear-weapon-grade material for a devastating bomb. Although the leadership in Tehran expressed its willingness to curtail the program again, as agreed in the 2015 Vienna nuclear agreement, it was unwilling to give up its enrichment capability.

At the G7 summit in Canada, the leading industrialized countries also emphasized in a joint statement that Iran must not acquire nuclear weapons. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz (CDU) said on ZDF regarding the Israeli attacks on nuclear facilities and Iranian leadership: "This is the dirty work that Israel is doing for all of us." He was subsequently criticized for his choice of words and his expressed support for the attacks.

Chief of Staff Thorsten Frei defended Merz. "What the Chancellor expressed with his words was that it cannot be in all of our interests for a terrorist regime like the Iranian mullah regime to possess nuclear weapons," the CDU politician told the German Press Agency. But it's not just about nuclear weapons. "Iran's missile technology is also such that medium-range missiles can reach very long-range targets, even in Europe. And that's why we can't pretend that none of this concerns us."

The Israeli military reportedly launched another air attack on Iran overnight. Targets in the capital Tehran and other parts of the country were attacked, the armed forces said. According to the Israeli military, Iran had previously fired several rockets at Israel. There were initially no reports of casualties in the reciprocal attacks.

Shortly thereafter, the Israeli military called on residents of an area near the Iranian cities of Arak and Khondab to seek safety. The army announced it would attack military installations there. A heavy water reactor is located in the region. Heavy water helps cool nuclear reactors but produces plutonium as a byproduct, which can potentially be used in nuclear weapons.

Current figures demonstrate how complex and complicated relations with Israel are for Germany, too. In the first five weeks of its term in office, the new federal government of the CDU/CSU and SPD approved arms exports to Israel worth almost four million euros. The Ministry of Economic Affairs announced this in response to a query from Left Party Bundestag member Desiree Becker, which was made available to the German Press Agency.

According to the agreement, German manufacturers were permitted to deliver arms worth €3.986 million to the country between May 7 and June 10, 2025. The country is under heavy criticism, particularly for its military actions in the Palestinian Gaza Strip, which have resulted in numerous civilian casualties. However, according to the information, no military weapons were among the deliveries.