BERLIN — German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said on Tuesday that the U.S. is weighing participating in Israel’s military campaign in Iran and that a decision could be imminent.  

Asked in a TV interview whether Germany is expecting that the U.S. will take part in the Israeli military strikes, Merz said “we have talked about this” and that the decision depends on whether the Iranian regime “is prepared to return” to the negotiating table.

“If not, there could be such a further development,” Merz told German publication Welt from Kananaskis, Canada where he was attending the G7 summit. “But we will have to wait and see. The decisions will probably be made in the near future.”

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been lobbying U.S. President Donald Trump to join his country’s military campaign and help attack Iran’s nuclear sites. Military experts say Israel is unable to target the deep underground Fordow facility without U.S. military help.

After cutting short his stay at the G7 summit in Canada, Trump said aboard Air Force One that he was looking for a “complete give-up” and “a real end” to the conflict with Iran. “I’m not too much in a mood to negotiate,” he added.

Trump’s ultimate intentions remain unclear, and other European leaders have suggested the U.S. in not contemplating direct military participation. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer told journalists at the G7 summit that “there is nothing the president said that suggests he’s about to get involved in this conflict.”

In his Tuesday television interview with Welt, a sister publication of POLITICO in the Axel Springer Group, Merz said the regime in Iran had been badly damaged by Israel’s strikes. “I can hardly imagine that the mullah’s regime will return to its old functions, especially as large parts of the military leadership are no longer alive,” he said.

“So it won’t go back to the way it was.”