The Twist: How Europe Caused This War
During my interview with Ali Safavi, a member of the NCRI’s Foreign Affairs Committee, he made a statement that hit me like a sledgehammer—and it should hit every EU politician with that same force. He essentially stated: "Europe Caused This War."
But how? Not only is Ali Safavi correct, but you are going to want to stay tuned to learn how Tehran has embedded its influence within EU politics. Even more so, I am going to blow the lid off one of the biggest flaws in EU policy that must be addressed and corrected if the EU is going to want to assert itself as a geopolitical power. So, stay tuned as I walk you through this story.
The Foundation of Appeasement
In 1991, The National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) first alerted the United States and the international community to aspects of Iran's nuclear program. The NCRI, with their internal sources, had their eyes on Iran; they were warning the world.
In the early 1990s, Germany, Italy, and France became Iran’s primary trading partners. At the time, Germany was Iran's largest supplier of industrial goods. During the 1992 Edinburgh Summit, the then-European Communities formalized "Critical Dialogue." This protocol allowed the EU to maintain high-volume trade while issuing "concerns" about human rights, effectively insulating economic interests from the NCRI's security alarms.
The following is the verbatim wording regarding Iran from the Edinburgh European Council Conclusions (December 11-12, 1992), as officially recorded:
"Given Iran's importance in the region, the European Council reaffirms its belief that a dialogue should be maintained with the Iranian Government. This should be a critical dialogue which reflects concern about Iranian behaviour and calls for improvement in a number of areas, particularly human rights, the death sentence pronounced by a fatwa of Ayatollah Khomeini against the author Salman Rushdie, which is contrary to international law, and terrorism. Improvements in these areas will be important in determining the extent to which closer relations and confidence can be developed."
The key here is that a Council Decision like this becomes part of the acquis communautaire—the accumulated body of EU law. These decisions, made during summits by the Council’s prime ministers and presidents, become part of the EU’s "Bible." The problem is that this policy of appeasement directed all EU policy toward Iran as the EU institutions and capacities evolved.
The Infiltration of Brussels
The 2009 Lisbon Treaty established the External Action Service (EEAS), which is essentially the EU's State Department. Catherine Ashton was its architect, establishing the EU’s six diplomatic spheres and 140 delegations. The EU’s Iranian policy of diplomacy made it possible for Iran to infiltrate EU politics through television stations, think tanks, and political parties, especially in Spain and France.
It had carte blanche in the EU, thanks to the policy of appeasement. Meanwhile, the NCRI was warning EU politicians and the world about Iran’s infiltration into EU politics, issuing detailed briefs. Their warnings were met with the appointment of Federica Mogherini, the High Representative who championed the JCPOA. She shocked many when she stated at a conference in Brussels on June 24, 2015:
"Islam holds a place in our Western societies. Islam belongs in Europe... It holds a place in Europe's history, in our culture, in our food and – what matters most – in Europe's present and future."
Notably, she was recently arrested in 2025 on fraud charges.
Her successor, Josep Borrell, was appointed under Ursula von der Leyen’s first Commission presidency. Hailing from a Spanish political party funded by Iran, he might as well have been the mouthpiece for the IRGC. He fought to keep them from being labeled a terrorist organization, and it should come as no surprise that he also assailed Israel and endorsed UNRWA despite all reports of it being a Hamas terrorist hub.
The Deadly Harvest
Meanwhile, under the blanket of appeasement, Iran’s nuclear arsenal grew, its atrocities against its own people heightened, and these extended to attacks on Israel through its proxies. On October 7, 2023, Israel suffered the deadliest massacre in its history and the worst anti-Semitic slaughter since the Holocaust. Approximately 1,200 people were murdered—including infants and the elderly—while 251 individuals were forcibly abducted into Gaza as hostages. These acts of brutality and barbarism were an extension of the cruel Iranian clerical regime.
It was evidenced at this time that UNRWA was a front for Hamas. Josep Borrell, under the blanket of the Edinburgh decree, was able to act as an Iranian apparatus—protecting UNRWA, advocating for the JCPOA, and attacking Israel on every possible front. During this time, Israel was being bombarded with missiles by Iran’s proxies and an information war launched by Tehran. US President Donald Trump understood the serious threat Iran posed to the region and the United States, and both Israel and the U.S. retaliated.
A Systemic Failure
For decades, nations like France, Spain, and Italy used their veto power to block the terror designation of the IRGC, citing the need for "diplomatic off-ramps." France and Italy reportedly dropped their opposition only after Iranian ballistic missile strikes targeted regional infrastructure, directly threatening European economic stability.
The Council did not change its policy because it "wanted" to; it changed because the January 2026 massacres and the Ukraine drone axis created a security environment where "Critical Dialogue" was seen as a form of complicity. The March 19th declaration is the formal recognition that the "Edinburgh Era" is over.
But the real problem lies in how EU foreign policy is made. It should not be done at the Council level, which requires unanimity, meets only four times a year, and deals with narrow agendas. The EU has a diplomatic service, but it doesn't have a "Strategic Brain" like the Bureau of Intelligence and Research (INR) of the US State Department.
Because the EEAS lacks an internal, independent research bureau like the U.S. Policy Planning Staff, it is forced to "buy" its intelligence from external think tanks—the very places Tehran targeted with its Iran Experts Initiative (IEI). In the United States, foreign policy is under the direction of the President. The EU has a synced Council-Commission structure and a fragmented list of protocols decided at summits through the decades.
These outdated Council summit decisions also apply to other geographical areas. With Israel, the EU relies on the 1980 Venice Declaration. Are they serious? 1980? Do you know how much has changed since then? The EU relies on outdated frameworks, and its system must be changed if it wants to be an effective geopolitical player. For the first time, the 27 leaders finally gave Kaja Kallas the kind of unified "Presidential" mandate that a U.S. Secretary of State has every day. The tragedy is that it took 30,000 deaths and a regional war to get them to agree.
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