The U.S. is being "humiliated" by the Iranian regime, Germany's chancellor has said, as disquiet among European leaders over a prolonged conflict in the Middle East gradually intensifies.

"The Iranians are obviously very skilled at negotiating, or rather, very skillful at not negotiating, letting the Americans travel to Islamabad and then leave again without any result," Chancellor Friedrich Merz said on Monday.

"An entire nation is being humiliated by the Iranian leadership, especially by these so-called Revolutionary Guards. And so I hope that this ends as quickly as possible,"Merz added, speaking to students in Marsberg in Germany.

The comments were unexpected, but at least partially reflect frustration that the Iran conflict is undermining Merz's government's efforts to bolster Germany's flagging economy.

Merz, like other European leaders, has faced criticism from PresidentDonald Trumpfor a reluctance to participate in the war. Europe, already dealing with a four-year conflict on its doorstep in Ukraine, sees the military operation as a war of choice that it was not consulted on beforehand.

Leaders are also worried that the U.S. has underestimated the resilience of the Iranian regime, which is underpinned by the Revolutionary Guard, and fear the war could turn into another so-called forever war in the Middle East.

"The problem with conflicts like these is always the same," Merz noted Monday: "It's not just about getting in; you also have to get out. We saw that all too painfully in Afghanistan, for 20 years. We saw it in Iraq."

Merz's concerns are shared by other European officials who have expresseda reluctance to get "dragged into" the war, as British Prime Minister Keir Starmer put it. French President Emmanuel Macron and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Melonihave also voiced their misgivings over the war, while Germany's defense minister has previously called it a "catastrophe."

Former NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg, the current finance minister of Norway, told CNBC that wars are dangerous and escalation was still a distinct possibility while peace talks remain in a period of stalemate.

"I worry most about the fact that, of course, wars are dangerous," Stoltenberg told CNBC's Ben Boulos on Monday.

Source: Drudge Report