Germany on Monday said it had asked the new US ambassador in Berlin, Richard Grenell, to clarify his reported comments that he wants to "empower" European conservatives. A German foreign ministry spokesman said Berlin had "asked the US side for clarification" and that state secretary Andreas Michaelis would re-visit the issue at a pre-arranged meeting with Grenell later this week. Grenell, who took up his Berlin post less than a month ago, was quoted by Breitbart London on Sunday expressing his excitement at a "European groundswell of conservative policies" that had come about because of "the failed policies of the left". "I absolutely want to empower other conservatives throughout Europe, other leaders," he was quoted as saying in comments that German politicians and media judged unusually interventionist for a diplomat. Social Democratic lawmaker Thorsten Schaefer-Guembel tweeted that "European citizens dont need a Trump vassal to tell them who to vote for." Grenell assumed the post in Berlin in early May, which had been left vacant for 15 months. On his first day tweeted that German companies should stop doing business with Iran, which marked same day President Donald Trump abandoned the nuclear deal with Tehran, according to AFP. 51-year-old former US spokesman at the United Nations and frequent commentator on conservative broadcaster Fox News, Grenell is widely seen as a hawkish supporter of Trumps "America first" stance.