President Trump habitually publicly describes our European allies with thinly veiled contempt. (“Most European, nations, uh, they’re decaying. They’re decaying. . . . They’re destroying their countries. . . . I think they don’t know what to do. Europe doesn’t know what to do. They don’t know what to do on trade either.”) While there’s a time and place for tough love, the regular outburst of sneering disdain is a bad habit; it offers nearly no upside and complicates cooperation on key issues.
But with that said, there are times when European leaders live down to their stereotype of being weak and feckless and afraid to stand up for themselves, and apparently, we have arrived at another one of those times. The Financial Times reports, “European countries including France have opened talks with Tehran seeking to negotiate a deal to guarantee safe passage for their ships through the Strait of Hormuz, according to people briefed on the efforts, in a bid to restart energy shipments from the Gulf.” The newspaper cites that to three officials briefed on the talks, and says France is one of the countries involved in the talks, and Italy had also made attempts to open discussions with Tehran on the issue.
Now, as far as European leaders go, Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has enjoyed a good relationship with Trump, at least so far, but Meloni has denounced the U.S. and Israeli strikes against Iran, and Wednesday told the Italian parliament, “I express firm condemnation of the massacre of little girls that occurred at the Minab school in southern Iran, solidarity with the families of the young victims, and request that the responsibilities for this tragedy be quickly established.”
It will be interesting to see if Trump acknowledges Italy’s outreach to Iran, and whether he perceives it as a betrayal on Meloni’s part.
There was a lot to gripe about in the U.S. National Security Strategy published last November. But one section, declaring, “It is far from obvious whether certain European countries will have economies and militaries strong enough to remain reliable allies,” looks a little fairer in light of today’s news, when at least two major European governments are reaching out to the mullahs in Tehran and hoping to negotiate a separate peace.