EU tries to keep the dialogue with Iran open after the US strike. But there’s very little room to maneuver

Brussels – After the US bombing of Iranian nuclear sites — which it had hoped to avert — the EU is trying to keep open the door to negotiations with Tehran. However, it remains aligned with the stance dictated by Washington.  At the same time, the sensational leap forward by the occupant of the White House risks plunging the entire Middle East into yet another uncontrollable escalation.

With the Midnight Hammer operation ordered by Donald Trump in the very early hours of Sunday (22 June), the Pentagon’s B-2 Spirit dropped 14 bunker-buster bombs on the nuclear facilities in Fordo, Natanz, and Isfahan. The real extent of the damage to the facilities and the Islamic Republic’s uranium enrichment program remains unclear. However, according to the tycoon, this was a targeted attack, and new ones should not follow, provided Tehran decides to abandon its atomic ambitions.

What is clear, instead, is that this action has dramatically increased tension in an already inflamed Middle East and risks permanently breaking the few remaining barriers. “There is no red line that (the United States, ed.) has not crossed,” said Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi immediately after the bombings.

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— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 21, 2025

“The warmongering and lawless administration in Washington is solely and fully responsible for the dangerous consequences and far-reaching implications of its act of aggression,” he added, stressing that the “door of diplomacy” at this time can only remain closed on the Iranian side and blaming the US attack (denounced as an “inexcusable” affront to the UN Charter) for the derailment of the delicate negotiations that were underway with the Europeans.

The primary collateral victim of last night’s bombing thus risks being the negotiating track, the one the Europeans painstakingly opened in Geneva last Friday (20 June) when the foreign ministers of France, Germany, and the United Kingdom met Araghchi in the presence of EU High Representative Kaja Kallas.

Arriving at the Foreign Affairs Council underway today (23 June) in Brussels, the former Estonian premier acknowledged that “Iran was opening up discussions” on its nuclear program. “We absolutely have to continue on this path,” she warned because “there has to be a diplomatic solution to have a long-term perspective” and resolve the crisis that continues to spiral.

According to the twelve-star diplomacy chief, “Europe has a very concrete role” in the framework of the multilateral agreements on Tehran’s atomic program, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action of 2015: “Europe has always had a role,” she argues, “and when Iran is ready to talk to us, we must take advantage of this opportunity.”

The JCPOA, Kallas added, envisages “the snapback mechanism to reimpose all sanctions if there is no progress” by the Islamic Republic, which ten years ago formally committed to limiting its atomic program to civilian purposes only. “Everyone agrees that Iran should not possess nuclear weapons, and we are working towards that goal,” she reiterated to reporters.

The foreign ministers of the 27 member states shared the same message. Antonio Tajani announced that he had contacted Araghchi directly “to try to reactivate a dialogue between Iran and the United States,” proposing to host the negotiations in Rome as has already happened in the recent past. According to the head of the Italian Foreign Ministry, Tehran “can proceed with civil nuclear research but not with military nuclear research.” “I have found attentive ears,” he said, assuring, among other things, that “Italian bases were not used” for the US attack.

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The Forza Italia deputy prime minister also said he asked Iran not to strike US military bases in retaliation and expressed “concern” over the threat of closing the Strait of Hormuz, the bottleneck separating the Persian Gulf from the Indian Ocean through which roughly one-fifth of global oil and LNG trade passes (an eventuality Kallas herself called “extremely dangerous”).

Paris was relatively more critical of the White House. Foreign Affairs Minister Jean-Noël Barrot made the point that it is necessary to avert the “existential risk” of the risk of the Islamic Republic with a nuclear device through dialogue and not with bombing: “There is no lasting solution” to the issue “by military means; only negotiation will allow a rigorous and lasting framework for Iran’s nuclear program and provide lasting answers to these questions,” he explained.

According to Barrot, moreover, all attempts to organize a regime change by force, as repeatedly ventilated in recent days by both Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, must be rejected without delay. “We believe in the right of peoples to self-determination and confide in the Iranian people who have heroically resisted the regime,” he reasoned. However, “it would be illusory and dangerous to think that by force and with bombs we can bring such a change.”

Spanish José Manuel Albares agrees: “Europe must have the courage to raise the flag of peace, to defend international law, to say no to war and yes to diplomacy and negotiation,” he declared.

However, for international law to be meaningful, it must be respected by all: enemies and adversaries, friends and allies. A consideration that does not seem to be shared among the corridors of power in Brussels, at least judging by the public communications of the EU summits.

Ursula von der Leyen, for example, emphasizes that “respect for international law is critical” and that “the negotiating table is the only place to end this crisis.” Too bad that the president of the EU executive only asks Iran to “engage in a credible diplomatic solution” without mentioning the US attack on a sovereign country’s nuclear facilities. To solve the problem, the president of the European Council, António Costa, directly avoids naming names and urges “all parties to show restraint.”