Iran risks setting the entire Middle East on fire, German leader warns

BERLIN — German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Wednesday warned about a further escalation in the Middle East after Iran launched a ballistic missile attack targeting Israel.

“Iran risks setting the entire region on fire — this must be prevented at all costs,” Scholz said in a statement. “Hezbollah and Iran must stop their attacks on Israel immediately.”

Iran’s volley of missiles against Israel represent the latest, and starkest, escalation in tensions in the region. The U.S. and others have worried that Israel’s military operations in Lebanon and the Gaza Strip in recent months could plunge the region into a wider war and drag the West directly into another major Middle Eastern conflict.

Israel vowed that Iran will face “consequences” for its barrage of about 200 missiles, but said joint air defenses with partners, including the U.S. and U.K., had been largely effective in intercepting the attack.

“It was only thanks to the Israeli Air Defense Forces and its allies that we were able to largely repel Iran’s attack yesterday,” Scholz said. “We will continue to work to broker a cease-fire between Israel and Hezbollah.”

Scholz is set to meet French President Emmanuel Macron on Wednesday in Berlin. The leaders will discuss, among other things, the tensions between longtime foes Israel and Iran and the broader situation in the Middle East.

A prominent member of the conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU), Germany’s biggest opposition party, meanwhile called for additional sanctions against Iran.

“The sanctions that were in place against Iran before the negotiation of the nuclear agreement, until around 2016, [should] be reinstated,” Roderich Kiesewetter, a senior CDU lawmaker on the foreign affairs committee, told POLITICO’s Berlin Playbook podcast.

“We have to be prepared for a nuclear arms race in the Middle East,” he added.