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German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas speaks during a joint news conference with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov, following a meeting in Moscow, Russia, May 10, 2018. Photo: Reuters / Sergei Karpukhin. The foreign minister of Germany was criticized on Monday after he expressed disapproval of the sabotaging over the weekend of Iran’s Natanz nuclear facility, which has been widely attributed to Israel. The details of the Natanz incident remain unclear, but reports indicate that it involved a systemic power failure caused by a massive cyber-attack, resulting in serious damage to the facility. There were no casualties in the incident. On...

The outbreak of COVID-19 has had serious consequences for human rights, with authoritarian leaders taking advantage of the pandemic to exert greater authority, German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas told the Bundestag on Friday. “We are observing with great concern how the crisis is boosting authoritarians,” the Social Democrat (SPD) politician said during a debate in the German parliament in Berlin. Maas listed repressive measures taken against journalists in Russia, Venezuela, Iran, Turkey and China as examples of responses to the pandemic, all of which are designed to repress freedoms. However, matters closer to home were also of concern to Maas....

Germany’s foreign minister said Saturday he is hoping for direct talks with Iran, in addition to the country’s European partners and the United Nations, as a way of de-escalating tensions in the Middle East following the US assassination of Qassem Soleimani. Heiko Maas told the German newspaper Bild am Sonntag: “In the coming days, we will do all we can to counteract a further escalation of the situation — in the United Nations, the EU and in dialogue with our partners in the region, including in talks with Iran.” Despite heightened anxiety in the region, Maas said he had no...

Declared by the us Congress the sanctions against the "Nord stream — 2" pipeline has caused a sudden and unanimous condemnation on part of the officials of Germany and the German public. First responded the foreign Minister of Germany Heiko Maas, who categorically rejected foreign intervention and sanctions. According to him, the energy policy of Europe is determined in Europe and not in USA. The decision of the Congress was criticized by the Federal Chancellor Angela Merkel. She said in the Bundestag that the German government does not accept the extraterritorial sanctions. The governor on coastal Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania Manuela Sweig...

German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas visited Hiroshima on Friday to commemorate victims of the 1945 nuclear attack and promote a nuclear-weapon-free world. “One day living in a nuclear-weapon-free world has to remain our goal,” he said. “Even though that will not be easy and may take a long time.” However, the foreign minister said he was against a unilateral German withdrawal of nuclear weapons. “It’s no use if nuclear weapons are just moved from one country to another. If they are to disappear then they should disappear everywhere,” he said. “As far as nuclear disarmament is concerned, we need agreements...

German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas has called for protests against right-wing extremism, claiming in an op-ed published in the Saturday edition of Bild newspaper that Germany “has a terrorism problem.” In the editorial, Maas responded to the recent murder of a German district president, Walter Lübcke, as well as death threats directed towards pro-migrant politicians Henriette Reker and Andreas Hollstein, the mayors of western German cities Cologne and Altena respectively. ”Eighty years after the beginning of World War II, politicians have again become victims of right-wing terrorists. Because of their beliefs. Because of their commitment to our country,” Maas wrote....

German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas arrived Saturday in Iraq to hold talks with Prime Minister Adel Abdel Mahdi and President Barham Salih over the increasing tensions between Iran and the US. Maas’s Iraq trip was previously not announced due to security reasons.“There is a clear danger of miscalculations, misunderstandings, provocations leading to unforeseeable consequences in this highly tense region,” Maas said as he arrived in Baghdad. “The latest escalation requires us as European neighbors to intervene in favor of de-escalation and peaceful coexistence,” Maas said. “We cannot just seek dialogue; we must lead it, precisely where the differences seem insurmountable...

German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas has said that Europe should form a “counterweight” to the United States whenever Washington “crosses red lines.” In a guest article for German business newspaper Handelsblatt, Maas said Germany wants a “balanced partnership” with the United States, in which it “brings its weight where the US withdraws.” “Single-handedly, we will fail in this task. The main goal of our foreign policy is therefore to build a sovereign, strong Europe,” Maas wrote. […] Maas said Europe needs to set up payment systems independent of the US if it wants to save the nuclear deal. “That’s why...

German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas on Wednesday spoke out over US President Donald Trump’s attempts to backtrack on comments he made during Monday’s Helsinki press conference with Vladimir Putin. Maas said Germany and other western allies demanded a “minimum degree of reliability” from Trump and his foreign policy. “It is, quite simply, extremely difficult to craft policies when the information or facts have a half-life of 24 hours. This will not work,” Berlin’s top diplomat added after meeting with his Chilean counterpart Roberto Ampuero. “This also seems to be the unanimous opinion within the United States,” he added. […] Germany’s...

Germany has responded to US President Donald Trump’s egotistic policy of ’America First’ by calling on the European Union to “bundle its strength” and show more courage — continuing the more bellicose German rhetoric that followed the US decision last week to withdraw from a G7 statement. “Under President Trump, the Atlantic has got wider,” German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said on Wednesday, standing at a podium emblazoned with the hashtag #EuropeUnited. “Where the US administration overtly calls our values and interests into question, we certainly need to take a more robust stance.” During the speech, delivered to a room...

Berlin is “determined to do everything necessary” to preserve the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran despite the US pullout, Germany’s Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said while meeting US lawmakers at the start of his visit to Washington. “We don’t want any proliferation of nuclear weapons in our extended neighborhood,” Maas stressed. Having a deal, according to Maas, is better than not having one, and fearing that Iran would restart its uranium enrichment program. […] Earlier this month, Maas sharply criticized the US stance on Iran, calling it a “disappointment.” He added that Berlin was willing to “fight for our interests...

German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas says Berlin is set to change its policy towards the US after Washington’s walkout on the Iran nuclear deal. In the comments published by the German Spiegel magazine on Friday, Maas addressed the diplomatic crisis that saw Donald Trump ignore the appeals of the USA’s European allies to keep the deal in place. While Germany intends to continue seeking cooperation with the US, Maas said his country would take a tougher stance towards Washington.“We are prepared to talk, negotiate and also fight for our interests where necessary,” Maas told Spiegel. “This goes for all levels,...

Germany’s foreign minister says his government will exert “considerable efforts” to protect the Iran nuclear deal despite Berlin’s misgivings about Iran’s ballistic missiles program and its involvement in the Syria conflict. In a visit to Jordan, Heiko Maas called for a “firewall” between the nuclear deal and Iran’s other activities. Under the deal, Iran agreed to curbs and inspections on its nuclear program in exchange for relief from international sanctions. …

Bill Maas is Pacman Jones, and we’re Maas’ enabling posse. I’m talking about all of us who sit quietly or crack jokes while Maas’ life spirals out of control. Maybe it’s fear. Maybe those of us who have known Billy Bob realize that he’s armed, dangerous and unpredictable. Maybe we fear for our own safety, so we choose to hold our tongues and ignore a pattern of troubling behavior — a sexual-harassment complaint in St. Louis, an arrest in Illinois for carrying drugs and a loaded firearm and now detained at the airport with a loaded 9mm pistol — that...