{"id":797192,"date":"2026-03-01T16:01:13","date_gmt":"2026-03-01T16:01:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/797192\/"},"modified":"2026-03-01T16:01:13","modified_gmt":"2026-03-01T16:01:13","slug":"none-of-trumps-eu-friends-welcomed-iran-war-euobserver","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/797192\/","title":{"rendered":"None of Trump\u2019s EU friends welcomed Iran war \u2013 EUobserver"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nobody in the EU or Nato immediately backed the US attack on Iran<\/a>, which killed its supreme leader ayatollah Ali Khamenei, except fringe populist fans of US president Donald Trump.<\/p>\n

Not even Trump\u2019s closest EU friends \u2013 Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orb\u00e1n or Slovak prime minister Robert Fico \u2013 voiced support on Saturday (28 February), amid fears of spiralling escalation in the Middle East.<\/p>\n

Orb\u00e1n said only that the new Iran war justified his veto on EU funding to Ukraine<\/a>, as the oil-market shock it caused meant he needed Russian oil via a disputed pipeline.<\/p>\n

Fico said: \u201cIt was natural to expect that retaliatory actions from Iran would follow the attack on Iran\u201d.<\/p>\n

Populist Polish prime minister Karol Nawrocki bragged on X that his close ties to Trump meant he had been forewarned of the Iran strike.<\/p>\n

Czech populist prime minister Andrej Babi\u0161 stayed quiet on the US attack, but said: \u201cI completely condemn the Iranian [retaliation] attacks on [US-aligned] Qatar, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, and Jordan\u201d.<\/p>\n

Italian prime minister Georgia Meloni, who has courted Trump\u2019s favour, said nothing, while her foreign minister, Guido Crosetto, voiced concern on the need to \u201cavoid the spiralling conflict in the Middle East\u201d.<\/p>\n

The heads of the up-and-coming, far-right National Rally party in France and AfD party in Germany, which Trump has courted, also said nothing, in contrast to the Dutch far-right PVV party chief Geert Wilders, who stood out as Trump\u2019s only unequivocal EU champion.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Dutch PM [Rob] Jetten is a total weakling demanding restraint. Ignore him, go after the ayatollah\u2019s [sic] and free Iran!\u201d said Wilders on X.<\/p>\n

But his (and Nawrocki\u2019s) glee aside, even staunchly Atlanticist EU states like Poland, the Baltics, Bulgaria, and Romania, which depend on US protection from Russia, either stayed silent or rather echoed Jetten\u2019s call.<\/p>\n

Polish prime minister Donald Tusk said he was preparing for \u201cvarious scenarios\u201d, while Estonian foreign minister Margus Tsahkna came close to criticising Trump, saying Estonia sought: \u201cDe-escalation, a return to diplomatic efforts and compliance with international law\u201d.<\/p>\n

In the EU core, French president Emmanuel Macron called for a UN Security Council meeting, while German chancellor Friedrich Merz abstained from direct comment.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe current escalation is dangerous for everyone. It must stop,\u201d said Macron, while also recalling Iran\u2019s \u201cmassacres\u201d of civilian protesters in January. <\/p>\n

Merz was \u201cmonitoring the development closely and is in close coordination with European partners,\u201d his office said, ahead of the chancellor\u2019s meeting with Trump in Washington next week.<\/p>\n

Belgian foreign minister Maxime Prevot said: \u201cWe deeply regret that diplomatic efforts could not lead earlier to a negotiated solution\u201d.<\/p>\n

Nordic countries and Ireland, which historically champion law in international relations, were more critical.<\/p>\n

\u201cUsually, justification for these types of attacks has been sought either from the UN or at least from allies. Now, there has not been much asked about this,\u201d said Finnish prime minister Petri Orpo.<\/p>\n

The foreign minister of non-EU, but fellow Nato member Norway, Barth Eide, said: \u201cThe [US] attack is described by Israel as a pre-emptive strike, but it is not in accordance with international law. A pre-emptive attack would require the existence of an imminent threat\u201d.<\/p>\n

Irish foreign minister Helen McEntee said: \u201cI am deeply concerned that the US and Israel have decided to launch widespread armed conflict against Iran at this time\u201d.<\/p>\n

Out of the EU\u2019s smaller Mediterranean Sea-region states, Cyprus, Greece, Portugal, and Malta voiced mostly consular security concerns, while keeping out of geopolitics.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are monitoring the situation very closely. We hope that the conditions for de-escalation will soon be created,\u201d said Cypriot president Nikos Christodoulides, whose country holds the symbolic EU presidency.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Greek government is monitoring developments in Iran and the wider region of the Middle East closely and with concern,\u201d said the Greek foreign ministry.<\/p>\n

\"\"Former Greek PM Al\u00e9xis Tsipras (l) met with Iranian leader Khamenei in 2016 (Photo: Greek PM office)<\/a><\/p>\n

Spain calls out Trump<\/strong><\/p>\n

But for his part, left-wing Spanish prime minister Pedro S\u00e1nchez let rip against Trump.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe reject the unilateral military action of the United States and Israel, which represents an escalation and contributes to a more uncertain and hostile international order,\u201d said S\u00e1nchez on X.<\/p>\n

He condemned the Iranian government, but also called for \u201cimmediate de-escalation\u201d and \u201cfull respect for international law.\u201d<\/p>\n

EU Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen and EU Council chairman Ant\u00f3nio Costa, as well as EU foreign affairs chief Kaja Kallas, issued mildly anti-war remarks.<\/p>\n

Von der Leyen and Costa said it was crucial to stop \u201cany actions that could further escalate tensions\u201d.<\/p>\n

Kallas was \u201ccoordinating closely with Arab partners to explore diplomatic paths\u201d out of a regional conflagration.<\/p>\n

\u201cI will convene an extraordinary foreign affairs council via video link on Sunday to address Iran and the rapidly unfolding events,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nobody in the EU or Nato immediately backed the US attack on Iran, which killed its supreme leader…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":797193,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5174],"tags":[217083,2000,299,5187,231412,221972,217281,231410,221970,217279,231411,221971,217280],"class_list":{"0":"post-797192","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-eu","8":"tag-typedefinedterm","9":"tag-eu","10":"tag-europe","11":"tag-european","12":"tag-identifier4293","13":"tag-identifier4294","14":"tag-identifier4313","15":"tag-nameiran","16":"tag-namemiddle-east","17":"tag-nameus","18":"tag-termcodeiran","19":"tag-termcodemiddle-east","20":"tag-termcodeus"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116154760225211521","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/797192","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=797192"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/797192\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/797193"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=797192"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=797192"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=797192"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}