In the days after the United States and Israel tipped the Middle East into a new and catastrophic crisis with their attacks on Iran, European leaders were all over the map.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz both voiced support for regime change in Iran soon after the strikes started more than four weeks ago.
Each of them also questioned the continued utility of the international rules-based order, while Merz’s foreign minister Johann Wadephul even said international law “cannot be invoked” by a “regime like Iran”.
In Spain, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez was quick out of the blocks to condemn the war as illegal.
He refused US requests to refuel fighter jets on joint US-Spanish bases and used a televised national address to say “no to war”, following President Donald Trump’s threat to cut off all trade with the Iberian nation.
But Sanchez’s was a lonely dissenting voice.
As the situation spiralled, soaring energy prices and the prospect of a new wave of displaced migrants heading for Europe proved clarifying. This was not Europe’s war but European countries would surely pay a price for it.
Germany, France, Italy and others rejected Trump’s demands to get involved, while fears quickly surfaced that another American foray into the Middle East would drain resources from Europe’s primary foreign policy objective: supporting Ukraine.
