The European Union has remained in a state of diplomatic paralysis, watching from the sidelines as the United States and Israel have shouldered the burden of confronting the Islamic Republic of Iran.
While American and Israeli leaders are taking real, tangible risks to counter the threat posed by Tehran and its vast global network of terror, European officials have chosen the path of appeasement, delay, cowardice and greed, all the while bashing Israel for coming to its rescue instead of thanking it.
As usual in much of blowhard Europe, statements are issued, meetings are held, but no real action is taken. This has become an all-too-familiar pattern. The EU talks about human rights, about democratic values, about international security— but when it comes to Iran, it has been ostentatiously unwilling to act. It is high time for the EU to stop hiding behind empty diplomatic rituals, usually accompanied by lavish banquets and lavish sanctimonious pronouncements, and start doing something meaningful for a change.
Iran's regime is not simply a regional menace contained within the Middle East. It is a revolutionary regime with global ambitions — and Europe is on its banquet table. The regime has publicly declared its desire to export its radical Islamist revolution to the rest of the world. The regime views the European Union as part of the "decadent West" that must be defeated and dismantled. This is not just rhetoric. Iran's rulers have waged a campaign of terror, espionage and assassination on European soil; demonstrated that its reach extends far beyond its borders, as far as South America, and that its enemies include ordinary European citizens and lawmakers, as well as Iranian dissidents living abroad.
A 2018 Iranian terror plot targeted a "Free Iran" gathering in Paris. This was no small operation. It was planned and executed by an Iranian diplomat, Assadollah Assadi, who transported explosives on a commercial flight from Iran and handed them to operatives in Europe. The goal was to massacre thousands of people, including international leaders, human rights activists and journalists. Iran's plot was an act of state-sponsored terrorism in the heart of the European Union. Yet, even after Assadi was convicted in Belgium, the EU's response was feeble: Iran's embassies remained open, Assadi was freed, trade continued. Tehran paid no price.
Iran's regime has also been involved in a long line of assassinations – successful and attempted -- of Iranian dissidents living in Europe. In the Netherlands, Iran was implicated in the killings of dissidents Ali Motamed in 2015 and Ahmad Mola Nissi in 2017. In Germany, authorities disrupted plots targeting members of the Iranian opposition. Across the continent, Tehran's intelligence operatives and assassins have been operating with shocking ease: European governments have done little more than put on a serious look and issue statements of "deep concern". Iran has interpreted this passivity as weakness -- and it is.
Iran's reach does not stop "just" with assassinations and terror cells. The regime is now a key player in one of the most significant wars in Europe since World War II: the Russia-Ukraine war. Tehran has supplied Moscow with thousands of deadly drones, including the infamous Shahed-131 and Shahed-136 drones, which Russia has used to attack civilians and infrastructure in Ukraine. In May 2025, Russia launched over 700 suicide drones into Ukraine in a single night. These weapons were not developed in a vacuum — they were the product of an expanding alliance between Iran and Russia. By continuing to ignore Iran's role in this war, the EU is effectively enabling the slaughter of Ukrainian civilians and the consolidation of a hostile anti-Western axis.
Instead, what is the EU doing? Talking. Just as they did in the 1930s, leaders of European democracies are choosing capitulation over action, hoping the storm will blow over without their having to take a side. Just like the tragic cowardice of Europe's ruling class in the face of Hitler's rise, the EU's inaction toward Iran gives Tehran the space, time and confidence to grow stronger. The British and Americans did not save Europe from fascism only for its modern leaders to grovel before the ayatollahs of Tehran.
One critical step the EU can and must take -- Germany and France anyhow -- is triggering the "snapback" sanctions mechanism under UN Security Council Resolution 2231. The "EU3" — France, Germany, and the United Kingdom — still have the legal authority to initiate this "snapback" mechanism. If they act before October 18, 2025, they can reimpose the full slate of UN sanctions on Iran that were lifted as part of the flawed 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) "nuclear deal." These sanctions include restrictions on Iran's missile program, military exports and financial networks. Tehran has not only violated the JCPOA — it has blown it to pieces by enriching uranium well beyond legal limits, and stonewalling international nuclear inspectors.
If this deadline is missed, it will become virtually impossible to rally the UN Security Council to impose sanctions again: China and Russia will undoubtedly block any future action. Years of effort, pressure and diplomacy will be down the drain. It took decades to build the international sanctions regime that US President Barack Obama tragically dismantled in 2015 with the JCPOA. Letting that structure collapse completely would be an unforgivable betrayal of global security and an invitation for Iran to continue rebuilding its path toward nuclear weapons without consequence.
Beyond the snapback mechanism, the EU might sever all diplomatic and economic ties with the Islamic Republic; close every Iranian embassy in Europe; expel every Iranian ambassador; cut all trade deals, freeze all assets, and sanction every official linked to the regime's terror apparatus. Maintaining business as usual with Iran only emboldens its rulers by signaling to them that the EU is unwilling to confront danger when it sees it.
Europe is actually pretending to stand for democracy and human rights while doing business with the "world's leading state sponsor of terrorism."
If EU leaders are too weak, too cowardly, or too compromised to confront the Iranian regime directly, then at the very least, they might stop trying to undermine the actions of Israel and the United States. Instead, support your allies. Share intelligence. Provide public and diplomatic backing. Do not hide behind rhetoric and "neutrality" while others are putting their lives on the line to fight one of the world's most dangerous regimes – and one that is trying to devour you. At a minimum, the EU should not obstruct the efforts of those who are willing to act.
The EU's policy toward Iran has been defined by cowardice, indecision and a dangerous desire to appease Iran's regime by looking the other way and conducting "business as usual." October is approaching. If the EU fails to act now — by triggering the snapback sanctions, severing diplomatic ties, halting trade and supporting its allies — it will once again discredit itself. But when was Europe ever bothered by shame?
Dr. Majid Rafizadeh, is a political scientist, Harvard-educated analyst, and board member of Harvard International Review. He has authored several books on the US foreign policy. He can be reached at dr.rafizadeh@post.harvard.edu
