The EU Must Stop Undermining Efforts to Save it

The European Union has spent years enriching Iran by choosing economic gain over security, morality, and strategic interests, making a calculated choice to prioritize money over principles, over the safety of its own citizens, and over the security of its allies. Iran is supplying weapons that kill Ukrainians, is on the brink of acquiring nuclear weapons and has been taking Europeans hostage with no consequences. Pictured: An innocent Swedish citizen who was held hostage in Iran, Johan Floderus (R), is greeted by Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson after his release, at Arlanda Airport near Stockholm, on June 15, 2024. (Photo by Tom Samuelsson/TT News Agency/AFP via Getty Images)

The European Union has spent years enriching Iran by choosing economic gain over security, morality, and strategic interests.

While the Iranian regime continues to fuel war, repression and terrorism, the EU has clung to its trade partnerships and business deals, while refusing to take meaningful action against a regime that actively threatens the continent's stability as well as that of the globe.

The EU is not being naive — it is making a calculated choice to prioritize money over principles, over the safety of its own citizens, and over the security of its allies. This really needs to end. Iran is supplying weapons that kill Ukrainians, is on the brink of acquiring nuclear weapons and has been taking Europeans hostage with no consequences. The EU nevertheless continues to do business with Iran. The EU provides the regime with the economic resources it needs to expand its influence and finance its nuclear program, military operations and terror proxies.

It is high time for Europe -- while posing as the pinnacle of virtue -- to stop hiding behind US and Israeli actions. The EU needs to cut off trade, impose severe sanctions, and isolate Iran completely. Anything less is complicity.

Even as Iran deepens its military alliance with Russia by supplying drones and missiles that are used to create scorched earth in Ukraine's cities, the EU has refused to sever its financial connections to Tehran. Iranian-made Shahed drones have devastated Ukrainian infrastructure, yet European businesses are still trading with the very country producing them. This is not just hypocrisy — it is an active betrayal of Europe's own security interests.

By continuing trade with Iran, the EU is directly enabling the regime's ability to fund its military operations, arm its proxies, and support terrorism across the Middle East and the West. European leaders appear not to recognize that every deal made with Iran strengthens a regime that seeks to destabilize the region and threatens Europe itself.

More importantly, Iran is closer than ever to becoming a nuclear-armed state, yet the EU has refused to take a firm stance. Iran is openly advancing its program while watching Europe stand idly by. Instead of triggering the "snapback" mechanism to reinstate UN sanctions, instead of cutting all diplomatic and economic ties, the EU has done virtually nothing. This is not a policy of diplomacy — it is a policy of weakness, of preferring trade relations over taking the difficult but necessary steps to stop Iran's nuclear march as well as the regime's endless brutality to its own people (such as here, here and here). The EU would do well to cut off all remaining financial ties at once.

One of the most disgraceful aspects of the EU's relationship with Iran is Europe's failure to respond decisively to Tehran's increasing hostage-taking of European citizens. Iran has repeatedly arrested and imprisoned Europeans on fabricated charges, using them as bargaining chips to extract political and economic concessions. The Iranian regime has perfected the art of hostage diplomacy, knowing full well that the EU will do nothing but issue weak statements and pursue quiet, ineffectual negotiations.

The EU's failures have only encouraged Iran to continue its hostage-taking operations, treating European nationals as commodities to be traded. European governments must abandon their feeble responses and impose automatic and severe consequences for every European citizen detained by Iran. That means immediate, crippling sanctions, diplomatic expulsions, and a full cessation of all trade and financial interactions. By allowing the Iranian regime to detain its citizens with impunity, the EU is signaling to the ruling mullahs that they can act without consequence.

The EU would do well to take the following steps immediately:

• Sever all economic ties with Iran. No more trade, no more investment, no more financial engagement. Every euro that flows into Iran is a euro that strengthens a regime that threatens European, as well as global, stability.
• Impose the harshest possible sanctions. Target Iran's energy sector, its financial institutions, and its military industries. The EU needs to make it clear that Iran's actions will face an unbearable economic cost.
• Trigger the snapback sanctions: Iran has blatantly violated its commitments under the nuclear deal, yet the EU has refused to use the mechanisms available to reinstate UN sanctions. This needs to change immediately.
• Support all military options against Iran's nuclear program. Military action has to be on the table.
• Finally, and most importantly, stand with Israel in its fight against the buzzsaw regime of Iran. Israel has been at the forefront of countering Iran's threats and taking meaningful action where the EU has failed. If European leaders are too weak to act themselves, at least support those who are preventing Iran from becoming a nuclear power, devouring the region and "revolutionizing" the West. The EU needs to openly declare its backing of any Israeli military operation against Iran's nuclear facilities.

The EU has spent years prioritizing trade and appeasement policies with the Islamic Republic of Iran, a brutal, expansionist dictatorship that uses every resource available to spread chaos, repression, and war.

The EU's continued engagement with Iran is not just misguided — it is dangerous, reckless, and a betrayal of European values and security interests. The EU needs to cut diplomatic ties, impose maximum pressure through sanctions, and take a hard stance against Iran's nuclear ambitions and military aggression. History has shown what happens when the free world allows a dangerous regime to grow unchecked: Europe's failure to confront Nazi Germany early on led to devastation. The EU must not repeat the same mistake with Iran.

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 [email protected]