GORDON SANDLAND: Iran is Europe’s moment of truth – will it stand up to America?
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The United States and Israel are doing the hard work. On February 28, joint US-Israeli strikes—Operation Epic Fury and Operation Roaring Lion—killed Iran’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei, Iran’s defense minister, commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, and secretary of the Supreme National Security Council.
Members of the American military and Israeli pilots are in danger at this time, struggling with retaliatory strikes to keep the free world from living under the shadow of a nuclear-armed theocracy. And what did Europe offer? Ursula von der Leyen called the situation “very concerning.” Emmanuel Macron warned of “the outbreak of war.” France, Germany and the United Kingdom were quick to clarify that their forces had not taken part.
The collective message from the continent was not unity but distance. If the transatlantic alliance cannot count on Europe to even fully support the public while the Americans and Israelis bear the costs and risks, then, really, what is the alliance?
I write from experience. As the US ambassador to the European Union, I was charged with encouraging our allies to abandon the Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) and join the US campaign of maximum pressure.
What I encountered in Brussels was willful denial. European officials made an unusual move to avoid acknowledging what intelligence made clear: Iran had violated the deal. Federica Mogherini, the EU High Representative at the time, simply ignored any evidence that contradicted her narrative. And the creation of INSTEX—a financial vehicle designed to circumvent American sanctions and keep European trade with Iran flowing—was a dramatic display of priorities.
At a time when the democratic world was supposed to be strengthening vice, Europe was engineering workarounds to do business with the mullahs. Iran realized and then systematically violated all enrichment limits set by the JCPOA, reaching 60% purity—a short technical step from weapons-grade material. Europe’s commitment to the JCPOA has not deterred Iran. Allow Iran.
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What makes Europe’s stand on the sidelines not only embarrassing but also absurd is that Iran has been attacking Europe for years.
In 2018, an Iranian diplomat working out of the embassy in Vienna was convicted in Belgium of plotting to blow up a rally of Iranian dissidents near Paris – a gathering of tens of thousands, including a member of the British Parliament who said that, had the plot succeeded, it would have been the deadliest terrorist campaign ever carried out in the European world.
In London, an Iran International reporter was stabbed near his home by assailants linked to Tehran. The director general of MI5 has revealed that British security agencies have tracked more than 20 potentially dangerous sites supported by Iran in one year.
Dutch intelligence has linked Tehran to assassination attempts in the Netherlands. German and French authorities have exposed Iranian agents who hired European criminals to spy on Jewish targets in Paris, Munich and Berlin.
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Iran did not just threaten Europe openly. It planted workers, hired criminal agents and attempted attacks that caused many casualties on European soil. And yet, Europe is equal.
The Tehran regime chose this path. It enriched uranium to near-weapons-grade levels. It armed and directed Hamas in the barbaric attacks of October 7. It excluded the Houthis from international deployment. And when its people rose up in the largest protests since the 1979 revolution, the regime killed thousands of unarmed civilians on Khamenei’s direct orders—the largest street massacre in Iran’s modern history.
As Oman’s foreign minister announced a major breakthrough in nuclear talks two days before the strikes, Iran was tripling its oil exports to shore up its economy. The diplomatic flight path was over.
Now Khamenei is dead. The top leadership of the IRGC has been removed. Ali Larijani’s hastily announced interim leadership is a sign of desperation, not stability. The regime’s retaliatory strikes show that even a mortally wounded theocracy remains dangerous—which is why the repression must never stop.
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The United States and Israel must continue to work until Iran’s nuclear infrastructure, ballistic missile capabilities and proxy war capabilities are permanently reduced and until any authority in Tehran understands that renewing these programs means destruction.
No one is asking Europe to fire a single shot. The United States and Israel have taken that responsibility. But there is very little—very little—that our closest partners can do to provide consistent social support. It’s not the mealy-mouthed who call for “high restraint.” Endless clarification of non-participation. Not Macron calling an emergency Security Council session as if the crisis were a response to 40 years of Iranian aggression rather than violence itself.
Europe must publicly support the campaign to dismantle the military regime, enforce the full scope of sanctions without carve-outs and tell the Iranian people that the world’s democracies stand with them—not with the resources that have killed them.
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There is a wide range that European leaders would be wise to consider. No one is watching more carefully than Beijing. China has strengthened ties with Tehran, buying crude oil in violation of sanctions.
If Europe sits on the sidelines while America and Israel shoulder the burden alone, China will conclude that the Western alliance lacks the cohesion to face determined adversaries—a conclusion that will inform Beijing’s calculations on Taiwan and beyond.
The coalition sends the opposite message: The democratic world cannot be divided, and the costs of supporting corrupt regimes are real and growing.
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The capitulation window is open now, and it won’t stay open forever. The United States and Israel have shown a willingness to act and are paying the price in wealth, danger and blood. Europe owes it to its allies, to the Iranian people and to its stated values to stand by them—publicly, frankly and without daylight in between.
Now is the time to prove it.
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