“This is not Europe’s war,” declared EU chief diplomat Kaja Kallas on 16 March, just over two weeks after the US and Israel began their assault on Iran in late February.
The conflict, which has now lasted nearly six months, is unpopular across the continent, where it has caused fuel prices to surge and received criticism over its attacks on Iranian civilians. Few European leaders have openly backed the war.
But Europe has also faced pressure to assist the war effort from US President Donald Trump, who has threatened tariffs and a possible US exit from the Nato defence alliance.
Mark Rutte, secretary general of Nato, has been keen to dispel the idea that Europe has not aided Washington, revealing in June that European countries had permitted “between 4,000 and 5,000” US warplanes involved in Iran to take off from the dozens of American military bases scattered across European soil.
Meanwhile, states such as the UK and France have seen their own overseas bases in the Middle East fall in the eye of Iranian attacks in the Gulf, dragging them closer still to the conflict.
