The attacks on our ships began with the EU’s appeasement of Iran

Revealed : The EU Commission has a lot to answer for - Part II

Montage © Facts4EU.Org 2024

A developing nuclear power, funding wars, should have been stopped years ago, not encouraged by the EU

On Sunday we published a report on the actions the UK and the US were forced to take in self-defence against hostile actions by the Iranian-backed militia in Yemen, known as the Houthis. This directly affects international commercial shipping passing through the Red Sea and Suez Canal, and thereby affects the prices and availability of goods in our shops and the price of fuel at our petrol pumps.

Iran is also backing Hezbollah in Lebanon as well as the Hamas terrorists in Gaza, in their attempts to destroy Israel.

A Brexit Facts4EU two-parter on why you should be worried about Iran

Part I : EU shows it’s a long way from having a credible foreign and defence policy
Part II : EU’s complicity in the appeasement of the Iranian regime over many years - This report

Today we look at the complicity of the EU (and US President Barack Obama) in the ability of Iran to fund all these attacks against the West – something we warned about years ago.

The EU in May 2018

In May 2018 President Trump announced that the US was no longer going to be part of the deal with Iran, as his administration did not consider it to be an effective constraint on Iran’s ambitions to be a nuclear power. He re-imposed economic sanctions in November.

“The Iran Deal was one of the worst and most one-sided transactions the United States has ever entered into.”

- President Trump, 08 May 2018

Here is how the EU’s Foreign Secretary responded, with a message to the Iranian people :-

Credit: EU Commission

“Let me conclude with a message to the Iranian citizens and leaders. To each and every one of them. Do not let anyone dismantle this agreement. It is one of the biggest achievements diplomacy has ever delivered, and we built this together. It is the demonstration that win win solutions are possible, through dialogue, engagement and perseverance. That common ground can be found, even when positions and interests differ. That respect can be a universal language.

“This deal belongs to each and every one of us. Stay true to your commitments, as we will stay true to ours. And together, with the rest of the international community, we will preserve the nuclear deal.”

- EU Vice-President and Foreign Secretary Mogherini, 08 May 2018

Since then the EU continued with its policy of appeasement with Iran, despite Iran’s increasing breaches.

The EU Commission was naïve in our view and pursued this policy assiduously. Below we give some examples of this. Now, unshackled from the EU’s Common Foreign Policy, Brexit Britain is free to go its own way and it has finally done so. Firstly we will start with the EU’s Iranian love-in, before summarising the UK Government’s new position.

The EU Vice-President’s love-in with Iran, complete with selfies

For decades Iran has been a pariah state and its government and citizens seems to have little respect for civilised values. Most readers will remember the Iranian embassy siege in 1980, and the famous and very successful storming of the embassy by the SAS sanctioned by the then Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. The videos went around the world and enhanced the UK’s reputation.

Here is the EU’s Foreign Secretary, meeting Iran's leader.

By contrast the EU has taken the role of appeaser in the JCPOA agreement, despite UN nuclear weapons inspectors being thwarted on a regular basis. We called out the EU on this before the EU Referendum.

More recently, here is part of a report we published in 2019.

The EU got it wrong

Despite having condemned President Trump for his withdrawal from the agreement made under Barack Obama, the EU found itself having to criticise Iran for its actions under this exact same deal. On 09 May 2019, the EU’s Foreign Secretary – former Italian Communist and unelected EU Commission Vice-President Federica Mogherini – issued a statement saying:

“We reject any ultimatums and we will assess Iran’s compliance on the basis of Iran’s performance regarding its nuclear-related commitments under the JCPoA and the NPT (Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons).”

Unable to admit she had been wrong in doing the original deal with Iran, she went on to say:

“At the same time we recall our own firm commitments under the agreement including as regards sanctions-lifting for the benefit of the Iranian people. In this regard, we regret the re-imposition of sanctions by the United States following their withdrawal from the JCPoA.”

This was all so predictable

Here at Brexit Facts4EU.Org we first reported on the EU’s involvement with Iran before the EU Referendum. Then in April 2016, just two months prior to the big vote, we published an article about an extraordinary 48-hour visit to Tehran by the EU’s Foreign Secretary Mogherini and seven other EU Commissioners.

This group of eight extremely powerful but unelected EU Commissioners visited Tehran for the weekend and agreed to all kinds of cooperation with that regime. At the time we highlighted three areas of concern:-

The EU Investment Bank started lending to Iran
The EU conducted joint nuclear research with Iran
The EU shared science and technology knowledge with Iran

Bizarrely this didn’t make the BBC News headlines.

Brexit Facts4EU.Org Summary

In 2019 we revealed that some EU Commissioners had a ‘special interest’ in Iran

The EU's unelected de facto Foreign Secretary in 2019, Federica Mogherini, was a committed communist for eight years until the Italian Communist Party disbanded and was renamed, whereupon Ms Mogherini joined the new organisation.

Ms Mogherini is no fan of the United Kingdom and indicated as early as 2017 that she was looking forward to ‘getting her hands on the file’ as soon as the UK left.

She studied political science in Italy and France and did her university dissertation on Islam.

The other EU Commissioner who was of particular interest was Elżbieta Bieńkowska.

Ms Bieńkowska is Polish and has no business experience, but she was bizarrely the Commissioner for the Single Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs.

However, Ms Bieńkowska does have a masters degree in Iranian studies from Jagiellonian University in Krakow, Poland.

So, the EU’s former Vice-President (and de facto Foreign Secretary) did her university dissertation on Islam,
and the former Commissioner for the Single Market and Business did her masters in Iranian studies. They were both in post for the JCPOA deal.

Who decides EU foreign policy?

Here was EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker on the subject:-

“I do not want to say a great deal about foreign policy. We urgently need a common foreign and security policy.”

“It would be fine by me if the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy [Federica Mogherini at that time] were no longer thwarted by the Foreign Ministers of the Member States and I will ensure this does not happen.”

- The then EU President Juncker, Oct 2014 speech to EU Parliament, setting out objectives for 2014-2020

In other words, the EU Commission President proposed that Italian former Communist Federica Mogherini, the EU’s “High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy” (and EU Commission Vice President) would be able to overrule the Defence and Foreign Ministers of the EU member states.

Where was the British Government on all of this?

Theresa May’s Government continued to back the position of the EU, rather than that of the UK’s staunchest and largest ally, the United States.

Finally, what is Brexit Britain’s independent policy on Iran now?

Freed from the EU’s collective control, the then British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly issued a statement in July last year. He outlined new action to hold Iran to account for the regime’s threats to the UK and its partners, including a new sanctions regime to give the UK greater powers to target Iran’s key decision makers.

“The Iranian regime is oppressing its own people, exporting bloodshed in Ukraine and the Middle East, and threatening to kill and kidnap on UK soil.
“Today the UK has sent a clear message to the regime – we will not tolerate this malign behaviour and we will hold you to account.

“Our new sanctions regime will help to ensure there can be no hiding place for those who seek to do us harm.”
The Rt Hon James Cleverly MP, Foreign Secretary, 06 July 2023

The list of 13 individuals and entities responsible for human rights abuses included prison governors overseeing torture and inhumane treatment, organisations charged with collecting private information of regime opponents and individuals leading the repression of women through Iran’s compulsory hijab laws.

Bringing matters up to date, the UK's new Foreign Secretary Lord Cameron wrote in the Sunday Telegraph :-

"I spoke directly to the Foreign Minister of Iran, the Houthis’ major ally. We left them in no doubt. Attacks against merchant and commercial shipping are completely unacceptable. They had to stop. And if they did not, we would have to take action.
"The Houthis chose to escalate. The number of attacks accelerated – and the severity of those attacks increased.
"On 9 January, they launched 21 drones and missiles at a British ship, HMS Diamond, and those of our US allies, in one of their biggest attacks to date."
Lord David Cameron, 14 Jan 2024

Observations

To this day we still find it extraordinary that the EU's Vice-President and a grand total of SEVEN more Commissioners went on a long weekend trip to Tehran, capital of a country which is responsible for state-sponsored terrorism. This happened while the UK was still a member of the European Union. Not only was this trip naive in the extreme, it helped to make Iran immune from sanctions for years. They should all hang their heads in shame.

Equally, where were the UK's broadcasters when this happened? As far as we know we were the only organisation to call this out.

Now that the United Kingdom is free from the Common Foreign Policy of the EU, we hope to see many more examples of our independent country pursuing its own interests.

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[ Sources: EU Commission | UK government | FCDO ] Politicians and journalists can contact us for details, as ever.

Brexit Facts4EU.Org, Fri 19 Jan 2024

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Reader Comments 2

1. terence patrick hewett , Friday, January 19, 2024, 06:58:

Collaboration is the default state of the European Union: I have no doubts whatever, that NATO is heading for a major conflict with Russia/Iran, with China waiting in the wings. Hopefully we can kick the can down the road until AUKUS gets functioning, and the Anglosphere's Five Eyes evolves into a political entity.

2. jon iivesey , Friday, January 19, 2024, 18:22:

Iran is definitely a rogue state and a serious destabilising influence in the Middle East, but blaming that on the EU is bit of a stretch. The plain fact is that centrifuge technology for nuclear enrichment exists and countries like Iran can get hold of it, as they have, and Iran has exports and can fund terrorism, which they have, so the West has to use whatever pressure it can, up to and including deadly force, to keep Iran in check.
But if you are going to play poker with a country like Iran, which is clever and also thinks it is even cleverer than it really is, you have to have serious military cards to play if pressure and reasoning do not work. And the plain fact is that only the US has those cards to play and Europe - with the exception of the UK in partnership with the US - just does not have those cards. France has a nuclear deterrent, but no-one wants to user that, and the rest of Europe only has the ability to defend itself from Cold War style land attacks from Russia, and essentially no ability to project force overseas to deal with places like Iran. France can project force into Africa, but Africa is very low tech militarily. I doubt if France could even deal with Hamas, as Israel has done, let alone Iran.
The trouble with the EU is not its motives, but its helplessness. The exception, the UK, has made a wise choice in turning its back on the EU and getting closer to the US because the next big war, if it comes, will be like the previous two big wars, basically fought by the Anglo-Saxon countries, with other states joining in opportunistically, to suit themselves..
If you wan to say the EU is thoroughly worth ignoring, that's right, but there is no EU cause and effect right now because they simply don't have the ability to cause much of anything. These days, the European half of NATO is simply along for the ride, more or less blindly, wherever it leads them.

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