As Iranians risk their lives in the streets, Europe is left choosing between moral clarity and diplomatic habit
By Matthew Karnitschnig, Euractiv
In any notable political life there comes a moment when a leader confronts a choice that will either land them on the right side of history or end up backfiring, destroying their legacy and their country’s interests.
Harry S. Truman’s decisions to drop atomic bombs on Japan and challenge Moscow with the Berlin Airlift come to mind, as does Mikhail Gorbachev’s refusal to send in tanks to try to forestall the collapse of the Soviet Empire.
The fate of the world order doesn’t always hang in the balance at such moments; think Charles de Gaulle’s call to take France out of Algeria, Willy Brandt’s Ostpolitik, or Margaret Thatcher’s determination to defend the Falklands.
Whatever one makes of these individual moves, one can’t deny that they required a quality that is sorely missing in Europe’s body politic today: courage.
Nowhere has that void been more obvious than in its approach to Iran. Europe’s response to the courageous Iranians who began standing up to their brutal regime and taking to the streets on 28 December was silence. Only after the protests reached an intensity that could no longer be ignored did European leaders begin to retreat from the shadows. And even then, they did so only on X.
The last of these not-so-brave souls to do so was Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, who tweeted her dismay over the weekend after the mullahs ordered protestors to be shot. (To be fair, she was busy last week meeting with a former terrorist in Damascus and pledging to deliver Syria hundreds of millions in aid.)
If only Europe’s fearless tweeters understood that no matter how fierce a post, it is not tantamount to action.
Europe’s feckless stance towards Iran is, if little else, consistent. For decades, European countries, especially Germany and France, happily did business with the Islamic Republic, even as its death squads kidnapped and assassinated Tehran’s enemies across the continent.
And truth be told, if it weren’t for American sanctions pressure, they’d still be doing so. To this day, the EU has failed to impose comprehensive sanctions on the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (a pillar of Iran’s murderous regime), much less declare it for what it is: a terror organisation.
Concerns over Iran’s nuclear ambitions focused European minds for a time, yet even then, European leaders always tended to give the mullahs the benefit of the doubt, whether to serve their own commercial interests, spite America, antagonise Israel, or all of the above.
“Iran wants to wipe out Israel, nothing new about that,” Josep Borrell, the former EU foreign policy chief, told me in 2019. “You have to live with it.”
No, we don’t. Nor should we. Iran’s regime threatens not only its neighbours and its own population, but Europe. Iran’s modern ballistic missiles can easily reach the continent. It is also one of the main suppliers of weapons to Russia, for example, serving as a key source for attack drones, munitions and missiles for Moscow’s war on Ukraine.
Beyond self-interest, there’s a more obvious reason for Europe to take on Iran: It’s the right thing to do. European leaders love nothing more than to wax poetic about democracy, freedom and combatting tyranny.
The bravery of the thousands of Iranians defying the regime offers Europe’s leaders a rare chance to show the courage of their convictions – not by tweeting but through action.
What might that entail? For starters, isolating the regime.
European capitals could recall all ambassadors still in Iran. More than 20 EU members, as well as the EU itself (via member states), still maintain a diplomatic presence in Tehran. Close them. Cut Iran completely off. Refuse to meet with their representatives, their ministers, their businesses, etc.
At the same time, EU countries could declare every Iranian ambassador in Europe persona non grata.
Finally, European countries could enforce a full trade blockade against Iran and rigorously enforce all existing sanctions against Iranian entities to the very last pistachio.
Europe likes to see itself on the right side of history. With Iran, it is history that is watching – and waiting to see whether Europe’s leaders finally do more than tweet.
This article has been updated to note that the EU is represented via member states in Iran.
Originally published in Euractiv. Matthew Karnitschnig has been Editor-in-Chief since January 2025 of Euractiv, an independent pan-European media network specialised in EU affairs.