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We could call it a tremendous success right now, as we leave here, I could call it, or we could go further and we're going to go

further. But the big risk on that war has been over for three days. We are winning with an overwhelming

and unrelenting focus on our objectives, which are the same as the day I gave my first briefing here on Operation Epic Fury.

They're straightforward, and we are executing them with ruthless precision.

Mixed messages by President Trump and his administration about how long the joint U.S. Israeli war against Iran will last have unnerved allies and shaken markets on this side of the Atlantic.

Two weeks into the conflict, European capitals are asking when it will come to an end, and how can they influence what comes next?

And nowhere more so than in Berlin.

Germany's Chancellor Friedrich Mertz was one of the few European leaders to give qualified support to the American and Israeli action at the outset.

But he's been rowing back a bit since.

I'm Anne McElvoy hosting a Friday conversation on EU Confidential,

and my guest this week is an influential voice in the Christian Democrat-led coalition,

Norbert Rutken.

A long-standing member of the Bundestag, former chair of its Foreign Affairs Committee, no less,

and minister in Angela Merkel's government, Rutken is a strong believer in the Atlantic Alliance.

When the conflict began, he said the war presented an historic opportunity for Iranians to regain

their freedom. But with little sign of the regime in Tehran disappearing,

is he still as optimistic about a resolution

and are the tensions within Europe over the conduct and the duration of the war

spilling into the open?

Norbert Wirtken, welcome to EU Confidential.

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