Reality Check: Europe Won't Roll Over on Iran
U.S. allies will continue to do business, despite the threat of sanctions.
Just another Wednesday in Tehran.
Photographer: Ali Mohammadi/Bloomberg
Driving a wedge between the U.S. and Europe has long been a top policy goal for President Vladimir Putin of Russia. Now, another oil regime, Iran, shares that ambition. And even though Iran and Russia don’t have a realistic shot at success, President Donald Trump’s ham-handed treatment of his European allies brings them just a little closer to achieving their objective.
Trump’s attitude toward Europe is clear: He considers the European Union a collection of puffed-up small countries dependent on the U.S. for economic survival and military protection. In Trump’s view, these little nations will always cave to pressure. That stance was conveyed by the imperious tweet from the the newly arrived U.S. ambassador to Germany, Richard Grenell, who ordered German companies that do business in Iran to “wind down operations immediately.” Grenell has since explained that the tweet followed “the exact language sent out from the White House talking points” on Trump’s decision to withdraw the U.S. from the Iran nuclear deal.