Germany's foreign minister, Guido Westerwelle, has called the US ambassador to a personal meeting to discuss allegations that US secret services bugged Chancellor Angela Merkel's mobile phone.
The decision to call in John B Emerson, who has only been the US representative in Berlin since mid-August, is an unusally drastic measure. During previous upheavals in relations, such as over the Syrian crisis, conversations have taken place between diplomats.
Allegations that the US government's spying had reached the highest level were met with outrage and disappointment in Germany on Thursday. The country's defence minister, Thomas de Maiziere, told ARD television that it would be "really bad" if the reports turned out to be true. Washington and Berlin could not return to "business as usual", he said.
Suddeütsche Zeitung conveyed a strong sense of the depth of disillusionment with the US president in Germany when it wrote that "Barack Obama is not a Nobel peace prize winner, he is a troublemaker".
Read more: Germany summons US ambassador over claim NSA bugged Merkel's phone | World news | theguardian.com
The decision to call in John B Emerson, who has only been the US representative in Berlin since mid-August, is an unusally drastic measure. During previous upheavals in relations, such as over the Syrian crisis, conversations have taken place between diplomats.
Allegations that the US government's spying had reached the highest level were met with outrage and disappointment in Germany on Thursday. The country's defence minister, Thomas de Maiziere, told ARD television that it would be "really bad" if the reports turned out to be true. Washington and Berlin could not return to "business as usual", he said.
Suddeütsche Zeitung conveyed a strong sense of the depth of disillusionment with the US president in Germany when it wrote that "Barack Obama is not a Nobel peace prize winner, he is a troublemaker".
Read more: Germany summons US ambassador over claim NSA bugged Merkel's phone | World news | theguardian.com
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