Germany is one of the countries that have recently assumed a more active role in the diplomatic field. Concurrent with the Iran visit of the German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas in line with keeping the JCPOA alive, we hear the news that Germany intends to play a role in peace talks between the Afghans. Recently, the Special Representative of Germany on Afghanistan, Markus Potzel, visited Kabul and met with President Ashraf Ghani. The German envoy announced that Berlin was ready for mediation with a view to starting intra-Afghan peace talks.

Germany’s Diplomatic Movements on the question of tension between Iran and the United States and in the Persian Gulf region seem to relate to two issues: first, Germany is one of the three European states that have signed the JCPOA and is the third economic power in the world and therefore can play an active role in reducing tensions between Tehran and Washington and in fulfillment of the commitments made by European governments after the withdrawal of the United States from the Iran Nuclear Agreement.

Currently, the weak position of France in the European Union and the unstable situation of Emmanuel Macron, as well as the unbalanced status of Britain due to the issue of Brexit has prompted Berlin to be in a stronger position than the other two members of the European Troika.

In addition, given Germany’s economic and political status in Europe if they want to make a breakthrough in connection with Iran Nuclear Agreement only Berlin can play a significant role and make other European countries follow suit. But if Germany does not or could not play a role to this end, other countries would be unable to be effective in maintaining the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

Germany also has very close political, economic, and security ties with the United States, which will also help Germany become an active player in the region and reduce tensions between Iran and the United States and some of its allies.

On the other hand, the security implications of any insecurity and instability in the Middle East will also affect the European countries. Over the past few years, with the escalation of unrest in the region, Europe has also witnessed crises such as the influx of asylum seekers and terrorist acts and threats in some European capitals.

For this reason, Germany as a leading member of the European Union and as one of the countries that have suffered from both the crisis of asylum seekers and terrorist attacks has now adopted an active policy in the region. Berlin wants to maintain the JCPOA as a security agreement and in the meanwhile, it wants to play the role of a peace mediator between Afghan groups.

On the other hand, Germany has seen developments in the domestic arena as well. On the one hand, the European Parliament elections saw a drop in the votes of the ruling party, and on the other hand, the German Chancellor Angela Merkel is due to hand over power in 2021. In connection with the European Parliamentary elections, the expectations of the far-right parties did not materialize in Germany. Nonetheless, they succeeded for the first time in forming a parliamentary group in the European Parliament. However, given the position of the center-right, liberal parties and the socialist parties about countering far-right parties, these parties are not expected to make a serious challenge to the European Union and the European Parliament.

However, the German political situation and Merkel’s policies in her fourth term as Chancellor could lead to the weakening of German foreign policy to some extent, but these domestic issues are not at a level to undermine Germany’s role in the European Union and the world.