Hana JALLOUL MURO

S&D Member of the EU Parliament, Secretary for International Policy and Development Cooperation of the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) and Vice-President of Socialist International

On 27 February, the United States and Israel attacked Iran without the approval of the UN Security Council and in violation of Article 2 of the United Nations Charter. Both governments justified the operation as a ‘preventive strike’, a concept that does not exist in international law.

The bombings took place just hours after Iran had accepted, in negotiations with the United States mediated by Oman, measures such as not storing enriched uranium. The imminent threat invoked by both powers before launching the attack contradicted the International Atomic Energy Agency, whose inspectors had stated that they had found no evidence of a systematic programme to build nuclear weapons. It is true that Iran had enriched uranium to 60 per cent purity, far above civilian requirements, and that the growth of its stockpiles and the restrictions placed on inspectors’ access remained a matter of concern. But mere concern does not justify a preventive war. International law exists precisely to draw that line. Sanctions and diplomatic means should be put in place.

After the attacks came the disappointing statements from the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen; the High Representative for Foreign Affairs, Kaja Kallas; and the President of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola. None of them did what academics, jurists and Europeanists expected: condemn an illegal unilateral military attack. Instead, European institutions chose to take refuge behind the violence of the Iranian regime. A violence we have condemned and still confront politically within the European Union.

It is worth recalling that last March, the European Parliament adopted, with a large majority, a resolution in support of the Iranian people. The resolution condemned the violence of the regime, promoted a process of dialogue among Iranians to determine their own future, and called for sanctions as well as for the designation of the Revolutionary Guard as a terrorist organisation. It is indeed possible to denounce the Ayatollahs’ regime, to condemn its violence and at the same time to condemn the US-Israeli attacks on Iran: one does not exclude the other.

Yet the selective application – or outright abandonment – of international law by the European Union has weakened the European project. Today, the positions of member state leaders carry more weight than the voice of the Union itself.

In this context, Pedro Sánchez and his strong stance against the war with his clear statement ‘No to War’ have once again become a beacon of hope for citizens who reject wars and injustice, and who refuse to abandon the long period of peace that Europe has experienced for decades. The Spanish Prime Minister’s refusal to allow Spanish military bases in Morón and Rota to be used for unlawful attacks, under the 1988 defence cooperation agreement between the United States and Spain, has marked a clear stance. His calls for diplomacy, his condemnation of the attacks on Iran while urging de-escalation, and his commitment to consider support measures for citizens who might suffer the consequences of war, have mobilised millions of people around the world through public statements and social media. Despite the algorithms.

In response, Donald Trump’s threats of possible trade reprisals against Spain remained little more than rhetoric. The European Union invoked its trade competencies and reacted firmly for the first time since the attacks.

But the lesson is another. A strategy of permanent caution and fear of calling things by their proper name has not made the United States take the European Union more seriously. The most striking example came with the US-decision to lift sanctions on Russian oil, directly harming Ukraine and undermining the policies the European Union has pursued since Putin’s invasion.

The question is therefore unavoidable: what future does a European Union have if it appears willing to abandon the international order that it has helped to build since 1945?

While Europe deliberates, the Middle East bleeds. In Iran, more than 1,300 people have been killed. Among them are 165 girls who were at school when the attacks began.

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu continues his regional offensive to strengthen his political position ahead of the coming elections, at the expense of Israeli citizens’ security. In Gaza, Israeli authorities have closed all border crossings, suffocating a population that is still processing the grief of more than 72,000 people killed. In the West Bank, the Israeli government has approved legal and administrative measures that include changes to land registration and sales, greater control over resources and authority in areas A and B – according to Oslo accords –, and the transfer of municipal powers in Hebron to the Israeli civil administration. These measures amount to a de facto annexation of the territory, reinforce illegal settlements and settler violence, and directly contradict the two-state solution that the European Union itself claims to defend.

In Lebanon, Israel has devastated the south of the country and bombed the capital. The attacks have caused more than 680 deaths, including almost 100 children, and displaced more than 800,000 people as part of its operation against the pro-Iranian group Hezbollah, a terrorist militia responsible for instability and Israeli threats to Lebanon’s territorial integrity. This brutal escalation comes at a particularly delicate moment, as the Lebanese government had, for the first time, begun the initial stages of Hezbollah’s disarmament.

The violence is also spreading to Iraq. And Gulf countries are intercepting Iranian missiles that have already caused around a dozen deaths and threaten the stability of the Arabian Peninsula and European security. As the region trembles and Donald Trump continues to contradict himself about how long the operation will last in order to ease the energy crisis it has triggered, we democrats will continue to look to Spain in the absence of strong European voices. Meanwhile, the innocent will continue to pay the price – minute by minute.

Photo credits: Mehr News Agency
CC BY 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=185287372