By Agrim Agrawal
In another dramatic step to the increasing involvement of the West in the Middle East crisis, France, Germany and the United Kingdom have made a historic joint statement on Sunday, threatening to consider a defensive response on Iran should Tehran not end its missile and drone bombardment in the region.
The statement of so-called E3 group, issued by the offices of French president Emmanuel Macron, German chancellor Friedrich Merz and the UK prime minister Keir Starmer is issued after a dramatic turn of the events that has put the region on its toes. Iran struck back at the U.S. ally, the U.S., and launching missiles and drones at Israel following an unexpected joint U.S., Israeli aircraft strike that killed Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
The leaders of the three countries talked of their outrage at the indiscriminate and unfair firing of missiles by the Iranian government on countries in the region including those who never participated in the original US and Israeli military actions.
The intent was not skipped in the statement. The E3 leaders stated that they would take measures to protect our interests and those of our allies in the region and might achieve this by empowering them to take the required and reasonable defensive action to destroy the capability of the Iran to launch missiles and drones against their origin.
The use of British military bases to attack Iran missile launchers by the U.S. was recently greenlit by the UK Prime Minister, Keir Starmer as the British jets have already been deployed to downing any incoming threats but the retaliation by Iran has seemingly compelled London to do so.
In a pre-recorded message, Iranian president Masoud Pezeshkian announced that a new leadership council was at work at the time of the death of Khamenei, a move that Western analysts fear might be generating dangerous ambiguity at a time of peak tension in the region. The Foreign Minister of Iran Abbas Araghchi was also very defiant as he said that his country was going to defend itself at all costs.
The Trump administration was also called upon by the E3 leaders to revisit the negotiation table with Tehran, an indication that hard-military line notwithstanding, Europe can still find a diplomatic off-ramp.
The crisis is a pivotal moment in the history of European foreign policy, the event that can either result in the ability of the continent to be a significant restraint to escalation or drag it into a conflict it has been working so hard to avoid taking part in.