For nearly five decades, the Iranian regime has exported terror around the world while brutally repressing its citizens at home. Today, Tehran’s rare moment of genuine strategic vulnerability has created an opening for Europe to play a more decisive role.
Increasing pressure on the regime would serve Europe’s self-interest while complementing the US strategy of coercive diplomacy and helping to drive Iranian concessions at the negotiating table.
And yet, Europe has reacted hesitantly, at best, to the US and Israeli military campaigns that have degraded key elements of the regime’s war-making machine and set back its efforts to acquire a nuclear weapon.
The refrains are familiar: appeals to international law, assertions that “this is not our war,” and complaints about a lack of consultation. In the immediate aftermath of the escalation, such arguments were understandable. The growing alienation across the Atlantic is real and concerning.
What Europe gains to lose
Europe has as much at stake in this war as the United States – if not more. The vulnerability of global energy flows, underscored by the ever-present threat to the Strait of Hormuz, directly affects European economies.
Iran’s network of proxies threatens European citizens and specifically targets its already vulnerable Jewish communities, as seen in the March arson attack on Jewish volunteer ambulances near a London synagogue. Moreover, Tehran’s military cooperation with Russia ties the regime directly to the war in Ukraine.
While European governments cannot be expected to carry the main burden of military operations, they can and should take concrete and immediate measures to maximize pressure on Tehran.
First, the European Union should finally designate Hezbollah in its entirety as a terrorist organization. No other group better exemplifies Iran’s projection of power beyond its borders. Founded, funded, and directed by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Hezbollah remains its most potent destabilizing force worldwide.
As Lebanon edges toward a historic peace agreement with Israel, the EU‘s continued equivocation on Hezbollah undercuts that fragile progress. Lebanese President Joseph Aoun himself said on April 27 that Hezbollah betrayed the country by dragging it into a war to serve foreign – namely Iranian – interests.
This hesitation is particularly striking given Europe’s own exposure on the ground. Under the mandate of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), European troops have long operated in a dangerous environment shaped by Hezbollah’s aggression.
The recent deaths of two French service members are a case in point. Yet, rather than moving decisively against the source of that instability – Hezbollah – European foreign ministers instead debated possible sanctions against Israel earlier this month.
Ending the artificial distinction between Hezbollah’s so-called political and military wings would send a clear signal to Tehran, strengthen Aoun’s hand as he pursues normalization with Israel, and materially enhance the protection of European citizens and personnel.
Second, Europe must rigorously enforce its designation of the IRGC and close the persistent enforcement gaps across the continent. Despite the EU’s important step last January to blacklist the IRGC, with a number of key European countries like Ukraine following suit, networks linked to Tehran or inspired by its antisemitic and extremist ideology continue to operate with alarming latitude.
Most dangerously, this has long been the case in the United Kingdom, which has inexplicably resisted the necessary step to proscribe the IRGC, despite overwhelming evidence and the urgent warnings of its Jewish community. Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s April 24 promise to proscribe the IRGC must now be fully enacted and implemented.
Beyond disrupting Iranian activities in Europe, this measure will also constrain a key supporter of Russia’s war against Ukraine. To their credit, France, Germany, and the UK triggered snapback sanctions last summer over the regime‘s escalating nuclear program, demonstrating that Europe can act with clarity when it chooses to do so. The task now is to build on that momentum.
Third, Europe should move toward genuine diplomatic isolation of the regime. Why, at a moment like this, are Iranian officials still moving with ease through European capitals? If it is serious about a foreign policy grounded in safeguarding human rights, Europe should impose painful costs on regime officials.
More decisive action is called for
Expelling ambassadors and other diplomats would have been warranted after the mass killings just months ago, when Basij forces murdered thousands of unarmed Iranian protesters, according to credible human rights organizations.
But it is imperative now.
Europe has shown before that it can act with unity and resolve, most clearly in its response to the 2018 Salisbury poisoning, in which Russian agents used a nerve agent in an assassination attempt on UK soil. In that case, more than 25 countries across Europe and allied democracies rightly responded by expelling Russian diplomats in a coordinated response.
On Iran specifically, European governments have enacted robust sanctions and supported accountability measures at the UN Human Rights Council. However, more decisive action is needed.
Rarely has the Islamic Republic been more isolated, more constrained, and more vulnerable. Now is precisely the time to increase pressure, not ease it. Moments like this do not last.
The Iranian people are watching closely, and they will remember who stood with them against their tormentors and who chose caution over clarity.
The writer is the director of US diplomatic engagement and US-Europe Affairs at the American Jewish Committee.