{"id":450962,"date":"2026-02-28T22:06:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-28T22:06:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/450962\/"},"modified":"2026-02-28T22:06:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-28T22:06:08","slug":"eu-scrambles-for-unity-as-iran-crisis-exposes-transatlantic-rift-politico","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/450962\/","title":{"rendered":"EU scrambles for unity as Iran crisis exposes transatlantic rift \u2013 POLITICO"},"content":{"rendered":"

At the national level, however, Europe\u2019s message was less unified. In a joint statement<\/a>, France, Germany and the United Kingdom stressed they \u201cdid not participate in these strikes\u201d by the U.S. and Israel, while condemning Iranian counterattacks and urging Tehran to seek to a \u201cnegotiated solution.\u201d<\/p>\n

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer emulated<\/a> that balancing act, saying the U.K. had \u201cplayed no role\u201d in the strikes while condemning Iran\u2019s \u201cabhorrent\u201d regime and saying Washington\u2019s \u201cprimary aim\u201d was to prevent Tehran from obtaining nuclear weapons. Starmer added that British planes were already in the air as part of coordinated regional defense operations.<\/p>\n

Elsewhere in Europe, Spain\u2019s Prime Minister Pedro S\u00e1nchez condemned the U.S.-Israeli operation<\/a> as a \u201cunilateral military action\u201d that risks creating a more hostile global order. Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babi\u0161, meanwhile, took the opposite line<\/a>, saying Prague \u201cstands by our allies\u201d and warning that Iran\u2019s nuclear ambitions and its \u201csupport for terrorism\u201d pose a threat to Europe.<\/p>\n

Nordic and Eastern European leaders took a more security-focused line. Sweden\u2019s prime minister warned<\/a> of a \u201cserious escalation\u201d and stressed it was in Europe\u2019s interest that Tehran \u201cis never able to develop nuclear weapons,\u201d while also calling for restraint and respect for international law. Poland\u2019s Prime Minister Donald Tusk said Warsaw was monitoring the situation closely<\/a> and preparing for \u201cvarious scenarios,\u201d adding that Polish citizens \u2014 including embassy staff in Tehran \u2014 remained secure.<\/p>\n

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy aligned more closely with Washington<\/a>, praising U.S. decisiveness and arguing that \u201cwhenever there is American resolve, global criminals weaken\u201d \u2014 a pointed message he said should resonate in Moscow.<\/p>\n

Criticism from Washington<\/p>\n

The European stance \u2014 particularly that of France, Germany and Britain \u2014 drew a blistering response from U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham, a close ally of U.S. President Donald Trump, underscoring the geopolitical tensions now rippling across the Atlantic.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"At the national level, however, Europe\u2019s message was less unified. In a joint statement, France, Germany and the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":450963,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[69121,138,163219,5704,459,140,141,72840,418,2992,819,59,145,57,58,585,9084,3683,420,632,151,50,9292,999,151257,471,1351,640,1668,11296,56,54,158,55,2988,160,636,163220],"class_list":{"0":"post-450962","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-kingdom","8":"tag-airspace","9":"tag-americas","10":"tag-andrej-babis","11":"tag-conflict","12":"tag-crisis","13":"tag-defense","14":"tag-donald-trump","15":"tag-donald-tusk","16":"tag-emmanuel-macron","17":"tag-foreign-policy","18":"tag-france","19":"tag-gb","20":"tag-germany","21":"tag-great-britain","22":"tag-greatbritain","23":"tag-iran","24":"tag-israel","25":"tag-kaja-kallas","26":"tag-keir-starmer","27":"tag-middle-east","28":"tag-military","29":"tag-news","30":"tag-nuclear-weapons","31":"tag-poland","32":"tag-roberta-metsola","33":"tag-safety","34":"tag-security","35":"tag-spain","36":"tag-sweden","37":"tag-terrorism","38":"tag-uk","39":"tag-united-kingdom","40":"tag-united-states","41":"tag-unitedkingdom","42":"tag-ursula-von-der-leyen","43":"tag-volodymyr-zelenskyy","44":"tag-war","45":"tag-war-in-iran"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/450962","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=450962"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/450962\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/450963"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=450962"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=450962"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=450962"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}