Washington: US President Donald Trump congratulated German Chancellor Angela Merkel on her election victory in a telephone conversation on Thursday in which they also discussed the Iran nuclear deal, the White House said.
"The leaders discussed how to counter Iran's malign activities in the Middle East, and addressed the nuclear deal and Iran's missile programme, and its non-compliance with relevant United Nations resolutions," the White House said in a statement.
"I think they spoke either on Thursday morning or this morning. And we have a readout coming on that," White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said on Thursday.
The White House did not immediately congratulate Merkel on her election, as is customary, after a campaign which saw Merkel implicitly criticise Trump.
"It's obviously been a complicated relationship," said Karen Donfried, president of The German Marshall Fund of the United States.
That is unlikely to change in Merkel's fourth term. "For her, clearly this is a critical relationship," she told AFP. "Merkel is still going to try to make the relationship work to the greatest extent possible."
"On Trump's side, my expectation is that he will stay very focused on his two big criticisms, one that Germany doesn't spend enough on defense and two that Germany has a 'massive trade surplus.'"
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