European political figures and scholars have strongly criticized the U.S. and Israeli military attacks on Iran, calling them a clear violation of international law and urging Europe to take a more independent and principled stance.
Joint military strikes launched by the U.S. and Israel on Iran on Saturday morning have triggered a sharp escalation across the Middle East in recent days, setting off waves of missile exchanges, mounting casualties, and far-reaching political and security repercussions.
Meanwhile, an attack on a girls' elementary school in the southern Iranian city of Minab which killed at least 165 children and staff on Saturday has caused considerable outrage, with the United Nations education agency, UNESCO, saying the deadly bombing constitutes a grave violation of humanitarian law.
The Iran situation has stoked further tensions between the United States and Europe, after U.S. President Donald Trump voiced disappointment in Britain for declining to join strikes on Iran, with the UK side also refusing to allow U.S. forces the use of its Diego Garcia military base to carry out further strikes on Iran.
Trump also launched an extraordinary threat to "cut off all trade with Spain" after Spain also denied the U.S. military access to its bases.
Trump's comments came as he met with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz in the Oval Office on Tuesday, with Merz saying Germany hopes the ongoing U.S.-Israeli war against Iran will come to an end as soon as possible.
Jan van Aken, the leader of the German Left Party, or Die Linke, and a member of the German Bundestag, said there is no doubt the attacks breached international law and called on Germany not to apply double standards in how it views the strikes.
"There is no doubt that the attack launched by Israel and the United States violated international law. The French Foreign Minister previously pointed this out. All international law experts also unanimously agree. This is beyond question," he said.
Van Aken also stressed international law is fundamental to maintaining global order, warning that if Germany fails to clearly address these violations, it would ultimately undermine its own international credibility.
Jan Oberg, founder of Transnational Foundation for Peace and Future Research (TFF), said Europe has failed to demonstrate strategic autonomy and warned that continued alignment with the U.S. without independent judgment could weaken the European Union in the long run.
"They cannot muster just a little critical word about this gross violation of international law and the United Nations Charter. So we are grossly guilty of the situation that the Iranian people, 92 million people, are living under today, and we should be ashamed of ourselves, in my view. And this is an opportunity to change gear completely, leave the Americans and the militarism behind, and make Europe a (region) that people all over the world would like to work with. But we don't have that leadership because the leadership only sees itself as [saying] 'yes' to everything Washington does. And that is very dangerous because when Washington, the United States empire and NATO has gone down, the European Union will go down too with it," said Oberg.
European voices urge EU nations to take independent stance on Iran situation
