Iran's Mullahs: Will the EU Ever Wake Up?

Even though Iran keeps increasing its military support for Russia's invasion of Ukraine -- posing a significant threat to the European Union, the EU policy of appeasing the mullahs persists, and the EU blithely continues to trade with Iran. (Image source: iStock/Getty Images)

Even though Iran keeps increasing its military support for Russia's invasion of Ukraine -- posing a significant threat to the European Union, the EU policy of appeasing the mullahs persists.

The EU blithely continues to trade with Iran, the top state sponsor of terrorism. The Tehran Times bragged in a recent report that the country's exports to the EU have increased by 28% in just 9 months:

"The Eurostat's data show that Iran exported commodities worth €799 million to the union in the nine-month period of this year, while the figure was €623 million in the same time span of the previous year, IRNA reported.

"The EU's export to Iran has also risen 31 percent to €3.148 billion from €2.402 billion.

"According to the Eurostat, the total value of trade between Iran and the European Union reached €3.947 billion in January-September 2022, while the figure was €3.025 billion in the same period of 2021.

"Iran exported €72 million worth of goods to the EU in September, while importing €472 million from the mentioned union. The value of the Islamic Republic's exports to the EU stood at €68 million last September, and the imports from the union were reported to be €308."

Iran's growing exports to the EU are also increasing the regime's revenues, thereby assisting it in supplying more weapons to Russia.

Does the EU not know that the Russian President Vladimir Putin received huge support for his invasion of Ukraine from Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei? Iran has been supplying kamikaze drones to Russia. This is evidently why, according to the Ukrainian foreign ministry's press service, Ukraine stripped Iran's ambassador in Kyiv of his accreditation and reduced the embassy's diplomatic staff.

The EU's appeasement of the ruling mullahs has continued even as the EU itself acknowledged that Iran was indeed "provid[ing] military support for Russia's unprovoked and unjustified war of aggression against Ukraine" via the "development and delivery of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles to Russia."

British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly noted in a statement:

"These cowardly drone strikes are an act of desperation. By enabling these strikes, these individuals and a manufacturer have caused the people of Ukraine untold suffering."

The EU has been allowing Iran to act with impunity -- most likely the reason it began sending troops to Crimea to assist Russian forces in Ukraine and sharpen the deadliness of their suicide drones.

"These drones," notes Henrik F. Rasmussen, executive director of the Institute for Science and International Security, "aren't just a threat to Ukraine — they're a threat to every NATO country bordering Russia."

Oliver Rolofs, Strategic security and communication expert and the director of the Austrian Institute for Strategic Studies and International Cooperation, warns:

"The Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) was responsible for at least 11 attempted attacks in Europe between June 2018 and June 2024, making it clear Tehran sees Europe as one of the battlefields in its conflict with Israel and the West, going so far as to partner with organized crime to achieve its ends."

The Biden administration similarly never imposed any pressure on the EU to stop its business dealings with Iran, even though the Biden administration acknowledged that it had evidence that Iranian troops were "directly engaged on the ground" in Crimea to increase the efficacy of Russia's drone attacks. National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said:

"The systems themselves were suffering failures and not performing to the standards that apparently the customers expected. So the Iranians decided to move in some trainers and some technical support to help the Russians use them with better lethality."

Iran also recently agreed to send ballistic missiles and additional drones to Russia. Iran appears to have had the largest and most diverse ballistic missile arsenal in the Middle East. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky remarked:

"In eight months of full-scale war, Russia has used almost 4,500 missiles against us. And their stock of missiles is dwindling. Therefore, Russia went looking for affordable weapons in other countries to continue its terror. It found them in Iran. I have a question for you – how does Russia pay Iran for this, in your opinion? Is Iran just interested in money? Probably not money at all, but Russian assistance to the Iranian nuclear program."

The European Union would be well-advised to keep in mind Winston Churchill's famous warning:

"Each one hopes that if he feeds the crocodile enough, the crocodile will eat him last. All of them hope that the storm will pass before their turn comes to be devoured."

Europe is bankrolling Iran to devour it.

Dr. Majid Rafizadeh, is a business strategic and advisor, Harvard-educated scholar, political scientist, board member of Harvard International Review, and president of the International American Council on the Middle East. He has authored several books on Islam and US Foreign Policy. He can be reached at Dr.Rafizadeh@Post.Harvard.Edu