Das europäische Trauerspiel

Nicht, daß sich die Briten in letzter Zeit mit Ruhm bekleckert hätten, was die Standfestigkeit gegen Islamisten angeht.

Aber so verraten zu werden für ein paar iranische Pistazien. Nein, das haben sie nicht verdient. Was will diese EU eigentlich noch von sich selbst?

The Times: Iran seems to have shattered European unity

The goal of European diplomacy is to show that if a nation such as Iran takes on one of the EU member states, it takes on all of them. But this is not the Four Musketeers: there are 27 EU nations, all with their own foreign policy objectives.

The EU was very quick to condemn Iran for the way it cracked down on presidential election protests last month. But EU co-ordination began to break down with the arrest of nine British embassy staff.

Britain won a strong statement under the Czech EU presidency. A British request for the mass withdrawal of EU ambassadors remains on the table, but in some capitals this measure is seen as too aggressive.

The EU is Iran’s largest trading partner with exports worth €11 billion. The two biggest opponents of sanctions have been Germany and Italy, which do the most business with Iran.
The huge difficulty in uniting 27 different approaches has hamstrung Javier Solana, the EU’s external affairs representative, who was chosen for his ability not to upset the big member states by trying to take radical positions.

Die anderen feiern bei Mekkacola und haken nach:

„I believe that Iran and moderate European states should thwart the spread of the crisis by some countries which aim to sever relations and impose diplomatic crisis in Iran-Europe ties,“ member of the parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Commission Heshmatollah Falahat Pisheh told FNA.

„Iran should foil domination of Britain’s strategy over European states,“ he stressed.

Falahat Pisheh underlined that the realities in Iran-EU ties are not what Britain is trying to portray, and added, „We should normalize relations (with the EU), but such a move requires mutual efforts.“

The legislator said that Tehran should stay away from Britain’s game and regulate its relations through cooperation with moderate states, including those on the European continent.