A center-right group of lawmakers in the European Parliament on Wednesday urged the European Union to strengthen support for Israel and confront Iran’s nuclear threat through diplomatic isolation.
The move comes as the European Union has been divided over Israel’s June 13 preemptive attack against Iranian nuclear and military targets, while consistently pressing for a diplomatic solution to the crisis.
“The recent events in the Middle East made one thing clear: the Islamic Republic of Iran must never be allowed to have nuclear weapons,” the co-chairs of the European Conservatives and Reformists Group (ECR Group) wrote in a June 18 letter to European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen and E.U. foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas. “Iran poses an existential threat to Israel and a grave danger to the region and the West.”
“Europe must not and cannot remain silent in the face of tyranny and the existential threat to Israel and the international community posed by a nuclear Iran,” Romanian MEP Cristian Terhes and president of the National Conserative Party, who initiated the letter, told JNS on Thursday.
The letter emphasized that continued European complacency towards Iran’s nuclear ambitions will only mirror past mistakes.
“The war in Ukraine has already shown what happens when tyrants are left unchecked,” the letter states, highlighting the E.U.’s greatest foreign policy concern. “The world cannot afford to make the same mistake with the fanatical revolutionary regime in Tehran.”
The organization of European lawmakers voiced their strong support for Israel’s preemptive strike against Iran.
“Israel’s actions are not only about protecting its people but about containing a regime that threatens us all.”
The group of conservative European lawmakers, which was founded in 2009, includes 79 MEP’s from 20 parties in 18 countries.
“Thank you ECR group for standing firmly on the right side of history,” Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Sharren Haskel said in a statement.