BRUSSELS (AP) — European leaders held emergency security meetings and scrambled to protect their citizens in the Middle East after U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran on Saturday that triggered global concerns of escalation into a broader conflict.
French President Emmanuel Macron called for an emergency U.N. Security Council meeting in response to the U.S. and Israeli strikes in Iran. Germany and the U.K. are holding their own emergency meetings Saturday to discuss the situation. The European Union is evacuating some staff from the region and European leaders are planning to coordinate further responses.
The responses come after the U.S. and Israel launched a major attack on targets across Iran, and U.S. President Donald Trump called on the Iranian people to “take over your government” — an extraordinary appeal that suggested they could be seeking to end the country’s theocracy after decades of tensions.
The strikes by the U.S. create a dilemma for its democratic allies. While European leaders firmly oppose Iran’s nuclear program and crackdowns by its hard-line theocracy, they are loath to embrace unilateral military action by Trump that could breach international law and unleash a broader conflict.
