The British and European reaction to the war on Iran is part of a wider trend of increased vassalization of the continent to the U.S., writes Alan MacLeod.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz waiting in the White House for President Donald Trump in August 2025. (White House / Daniel Torok)
By Alan MacLeod
MintPress News
European nations are joining the United States and Israel in their war on Iran. From providing economic and diplomatic support, to supplying military assistance to Washington, Europe is moving from a passive supporter to an active participant in the campaign to overthrow the Iranian government.
Chief among these actors is the United Kingdom, which is allowing its military bases across the world to be used in the attack. These include sites in Cyprus and on the island of Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean. Prime Minister Keir Starmer also revealed that British aircraft were “in the skies” over the Middle East, aiding its allies in their operation.
Despite this, Starmer’s tepid rhetorical support for the bombing earned him official rebuke from both President Donald Trump and his domestic adversaries. Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch, for instance, condemned Starmer for being “too scared” to stand against Iran, lest it anger the public.
A recent poll found that only 28 percent of Britons support the U.S. military actions against Iran. Sensing massive public opposition, Nick Robinson, one of the BBC’s most influential political anchors, suggested that public protests against the Iran War should be preemptively banned.
On March 1, an Iranian drone hit a U.K. military base in British-occupied Cyprus, causing Britain to evacuate the families of service members stationed there.
Hands off Iran protest at Parliament Square, London on Feb. 28. (Steve Eason, Flickr, CC BY-NC 4.0)
President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen was vociferous in her support for the U.S.-Israeli regime change project. “There is renewed hope for the long-suffering people of Iran. We strongly support their right to determine their own future,” she wrote, condemning Iran for its supposed aggression against its neighbors, while saying nothing about the attacks on Tehran and other cities.
She also revealed that she had spoken to a number of Gulf state dictators, including the heads of state of Saudi Arabia, Oman, Qatar, and Bahrain. Describing them as “strategic partners,” she reiterated Europe’s full support for them.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz also signed off on the U.S.-Israel war. In a long statement that included a number of factual errors, he wrote that, “The Iranian people have the right to determine their own future. Germany is coordinating closely with the United States, Israel and partners in the region.” He added:
“In recent weeks, the regime in Tehran has brutally suppressed the peaceful protests of courageous Iranian women and men…The United States has long sought a negotiated solution. Iran has not agreed to a reliable arrangement to end its military nuclear program, nor has it committed to scaling back its missile program or ceasing destabilizing activities.”
Merz ended by calling on Iran to cease its military attacks on Israel. It did not ask for the U.S. or Israel to do the same. “Israel is a victim of unjust war, like Ukraine,” he said. Later, Merz went even further, stating that, “This terrible regime in Tehran must go,” and even that Iran should not be protected by international law.
Tellingly, Israel chose Germany as the safest location to store its presidential aircraft, Wing of Zion, during the war, sending it to Berlin last week.
French President Emmanuel Macron echoed Merz’s words, condemning Iran for its belligerence, calling for regime change in Tehran, and offering no rebuke of U.S. or Israeli actions. He also noted that “France also stands ready to deploy the necessary resources to protect its closest partners, should they request it,” a statement that suggests Paris is ready to involve itself more deeply in the war at any moment.
At the same time, Macron announced a major revamp of France’s atomic missiles program, predicting that “the next fifty years will be an era of nuclear weapons.” The president stated that France had agreed to a new “advanced deterrence” strategy that will see French nuclear weapons capability being expanded to cover eight other European countries: the U.K., Germany, Poland, the Netherlands, Belgium, Greece, Sweden, and Denmark.
Macron meeting with Israeli President Isaac Herzog in Israel in October 2023. (Amos Ben Gershom / Government Press Office of Israel/ CC BY-SA 3.0)
The only major European Union country currently opposing the assault on Iran is Spain, Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez calling it a “violation of international law” and an “unjustified and dangerous military intervention.” The government in Madrid refused to allow American troops stationed at military bases in his country to be used in the attack, insisting that they must “operate within the framework of international law” if they wish to stay in Spain.
Immediately, more than a dozen large U.S. aircraft left bases in southern Spain for Ramstein Air Force Base in Germany, the headquarters of the United States Air Forces in Europe and Africa.
The diplomatic reaction from Washington was equally swift. Trump announced that he would cripple Spain’s economy as a punishment. “We’re going to cut off all trade with Spain, we don’t want anything to do with Spain,” he said, thereby stating his intention to treat Madrid in the same fashion as the U.S. treats Iran, Cuba and Venezuela.
The European reaction to the war on Iran is part of a wider trend of increased vassalization of the continent. It did not react when U.S. forces blew up the Nordstream II pipeline between Russia and Germany, nor when Trump declared a huge trade war on the continent. And it immediately began negotiating when Trump stated his intention to annex Greenland from Denmark.
Europe has long been helping Israel carry out its genocide in Gaza, blocking international efforts at the United Nations, sending weapons to the IDF, and sharing military intelligence. For years, British spy planes – based in the same bombed air base in Cyprus – have surveilled Gaza and likely passed that information on to Tel Aviv.
At the same time, governments have vigorously suppressed pro-Palestine demonstrations, even as its populations turn against Israel. A recent continent-wide survey found that 20 times as many Italians hold “very unfavorable” (43 percent) views of Israel than “very favorable” ones (2 percent). Even in Germany, where popular support for Israel is highest, only 21 percent said they hold favorable opinions of the state (including only 4 percent highly favorable), with 65 percent displaying open opposition (including 32 percent who strongly dislike it). A massive plurality of Britons, meanwhile, agreed with the statement: “Israel treats the Palestinians like the Nazis treated the Jews.”
Germany, though, has initiated blanket bans on Palestine solidarity, including prohibiting the phrase, “From the River to the Sea.” German journalist Hüseyin Dogru has been sanctioned by the E.U. over his Gaza reporting, leaving him without any access to money. And in the United Kingdom, police have arrested nearly 2000 people under the Terrorism Act for their support of activist group, Palestine Action.
Earlier this month, Avi Nir-Feldklein, Israel’s ambassador to the E.U., said that the continent was already “in a war with Iran.” He is right: Europe is a direct participant in the U.S.-Israeli operation, the consequences of which could be extremely grave, and greater than anyone imagined.
Alan MacLeod is senior staff writer for MintPress News. After completing his PhD in 2017 he published two books: Bad News From Venezuela: Twenty Years of Fake News and Misreporting and Propaganda in the Information Age: Still Manufacturing Consent, as well as a number of academic articles. He has also contributed to FAIR.org, The Guardian, Salon, The Grayzone, Jacobin Magazine, and Common Dreams.
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As I see it, England (not the “UK”) has reignited it’s old ruling class dreams of empire and elected a spook as its “leader.” France has elected a bean counter. Germany has elected someone with some kind of master race delusions, all of which led Europe into WWI and WWII disasters. The peoples of Europe, on the other hand, have better sense, and we can only hope they prevail over these men of very limited abilities, because the consequences of a WWIII will likely be irreversible.
On a happier note, after visiting indigenous people in Bolivia’, Peru, Chile, etc., it’s been my sense that it will be indigenous people, their “institutional memories”, and their practices—growing plants, for example and construction, and various forms of conservation aka respect for Pacha Mama, that will be the foundation of the world after modern “leaders” have managed to make the modern world unlivable.
I suppose we have no choice but to boycott Spanish Flies like we did French Fries.
For many years, probably since WW2, America has been buying up european businesses and taking over the military industries within europe under the guise of NATO needs. Europe is now in the situation where it has no independence financially or militarily. America calls the tune, Europe dances. Independant politicians have gradually been replaced with mindless clones who will do anything for a few yankee dollars and a pat on the head.
It’s no surprise that Europe does what Trump wants, he’s just the latest boss. Europe has been conquered without a shot being fired.
What this portends is the triumphant emergence of Zionist rule over the north western Nations of Earth. This is the uniting of the Judeo- Christian Nations to displace and eliminate the Muslim, Arab, and Persian cultures and steal their resources….nothing less. Many Christians may think this is in their interest…in the long run, it is not.
This is a biblical epoch, written, produced and directed by Zionists…for their benefit alone. This chapter did not begin on Oct 7th. If one connects the dots…clearly the initial blow was delivered on Nov. 22, 1963.
This is a war of economics. The west has l long built its empire on the backs of others cheap resources, and if they can’t continue to do that their hegemony will fail and their culture and standard of living will suffer. It need not be so, but they have yet to use the tools available to them. Instead their genetic and hereditary instinct for war is all they seem to know. Sad.
We will have to boycott Spanish Flies then.
Yes, that’s all correct. In 20, 30, 50 years time I hope Europe’s people will look back and say ‘How could we have behaved like that?’. It’s the same as looking back to Germany in the 1930s, 40s when many thought that was all OK then.
How can they not see with their own eyes the truth? I can only assume they watch the lies in all their media. Pretending to be.free and democratic which the EU certainly is not.
I am glad to see Europe coming to its senses. Thanks for the extensive update and perspective.
How did it get this way? Only a few years ago Europe would grandstand against Trump and now they lick his boots and serve at his beck and call.
This is really so typical of American fascists jockeying for a position to take over the world. That effort won’t die with T-Rump. American business interests, like Ford, and if memory serves, the Colt gun manufacturing company were actively supporting the nazis in Germany even after WWII had started in Europe. Prescott Bush, the father of George, arranged loans for the nazi party from dutch banks. It has been observed that the nazis could not have risen to power without that financial support. A history of supporting and seeding fascism in the world, by he USA is remarkable, and it explains a lot. This must end!
Has everyone noticed that Mr Trump has taken to using the royal “We”? Julius Caesar, Oliver Cromwell, and George Washington were too prudent to accept the title of king; not so Mr Trump. I suspect that if a delegation of the Good and the Great were to come cringing to him with a crown, he would cheerfully accept it.
Then they could take him away to a quiet place where he can receive treatment.
Oh Jonathan Swift, Ambrose Bierce, Mark Twain, Bernard Shaw, Gore Vidal, if only you were living at this hour! What a supreme target for satire we are witnessing.
Here are short, reimagined excerpts of how these masters of satire might react to the world in 2026.
1. Jonathan Swift (On Social Media and Modern “Virtue”)
“I am convinced that a modern Yahoo is far superior to the 18th-century model, for he has learned to cage himself in a glowing glass rectangle, willingly feeding his own data to the butchers who enslave him. My proposal to eat the children was merely a failure of imagination; imagine the economic potential of harvesting the engagement algorithms of an entire populace that has voluntarily exchanged its privacy for the right to scream into the void, entirely unread.”
2. Ambrose Bierce (On Modern Politics and Media)
“In my day, I had to work to find the corruption in the railroad barons. Today, politicians and ‘influencers’ display their profound imbecility instantly, worldwide, without the slightest provocation. It is truly a marvel. The Devil’s Dictionary must be expanded to include ‘Fake News’: n. Any report that forces a politician to admit to the existence of a reality that does not serve his selfish interests.”
3. Mark Twain (On Misinformation and the Internet)
“I once said that a lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is putting on its boots. Today, I’d have to update that: a lie, amplified by a thousand ‘bots,’ has already been liked, shared, and turned into a political movement before the truth has even realized its shoes are missing. Humans are the only species that can hold a smart device in their hands and still manage to act like a damn fool, all while filming it for posterity.”
4. Bernard Shaw (On Technology and Human Nature)
“It is the greatest joke of the 21st century: Humanity has learned to harness the power of artificial intelligence, allowing machines to do our thinking, creating, and fighting, yet we still have not mastered the simple art of living together on this earth. We have achieved a supreme technological civilization, yet we are still governed by Paleolithic emotions, behaving like civilized chimps fighting over a virtual fig tree.”
5. Gore Vidal (On the American Empire)
“We are witnessing the final, chaotic act of the American Republic, turning itself into a surveillance-capitalist theme park. We have replaced the concept of ‘citizens’ with ‘consumers,’ and the ‘senate’ with a reality TV show. The funniest thing is that nobody realizes that the United States has not been a democracy for decades; it is merely an empire that has finally decided to feed itself to its own voracious media conglomerates.”
“Immediately, more than a dozen large U.S. aircraft left bases in southern Spain for Ramstein Air Force Base in Germany, the headquarters of the United States Air Forces in Europe and Africa”.
Splendid! A good start. The Spanish government should invite Washington to finish the job by removing the rest of its military liabilities from Spain. (They could leave the UK, too).
‘The diplomatic reaction from Washington was equally swift. Trump announced that he would cripple Spain’s economy as a punishment. “We’re going to cut off all trade with Spain, we don’t want anything to do with Spain,” he said, thereby stating his intention to treat Madrid in the same fashion as the U.S. treats Iran, Cuba and Venezuela’.
Marvellous! At this rate the USA will soon be able to trade with only a small minority of nations – to its detriment.
“The president stated that France had agreed to a new “advanced deterrence” strategy that will see French nuclear weapons capability being expanded to cover eight other European countries: the U.K., Germany, Poland, the Netherlands, Belgium, Greece, Sweden, and Denmark”.
What on earth can that mean? (As regards the UK, anyway). How does “nuclear weapons capability” (a vague abstraction) “cover” other countries? That wording resembles the ludicrous notion of a “nuclear umbrella”, as if nuclear weapons could defend anyone against attack. Of course, all they can do is to inflict terrible harm, and even the threat of their use should be strictly avoided.
Not satisfied with emulating the late Chancellor Adolf Hitler’s aggressive tone, Mr Merz seems to be channelling Dr Goebbels’ penchant for embroidering the truth as well. An ambitious combination!
As soon as he was “elected”, it occurred to me that his name begs to be rendered as “Schmerz”; he is certainly causing a great deal of pain to Germans and others.
“lest it anger the public.” says it all
Awhile back didn’t they had the honor to middleman a plausible deniabilty for
sale of weapons for the us ?
Is the only thing left is to await the busting down of the concentration gates