00:00Last night here in Paris, the French President Emmanuel Macron called a meeting of France's
00:06Defence Council. Afterwards, France's foreign minister urging all parties to exercise restraint
00:11to avoid any escalation. The European Union also reacting, and today EU foreign ministers will meet
00:17to discuss the situation. Well, let's hear first of all from on the programme.
00:22So, ministers are very much focused on the diplomatic solution and also the concerns of
00:32retaliation and this war escalating are huge, especially closing of the Strait of Hormuz by
00:40Iran is something that would be extremely dangerous and not good for anybody.
00:47Well, let's cross live then to Brussels. Talk to our correspondent Dave Keating, who joins us from
00:51there. First of all, how is Europe reacting to all this at the moment? Are Europe very much out of
00:56the equation, would you agree? Yeah, it's been a very mixed reaction here, but in the end, I'm not
01:04sure that it actually matters. What we heard from Kayakalas, they're coming in here to the European
01:09Council headquarters where the EU national foreign ministers are meeting, is a mixed response. Everyone
01:15is calling for restraint, particularly they're calling on Iran not to make a major response to
01:20the US bombing. But some EU countries are more supportive of the Israeli and US bombing than
01:26others. Germany, for instance, has been supportive. Already last week, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz
01:32came out saying that Israel was doing the dirty work for Europeans by eliminating Iran's nuclear programme,
01:39or trying to eliminate it. And that's really the difficulty here, because Europeans, not only have they been very
01:47concerned about the potential for Iran developing nuclear weapons, Iran has also been supporting Russia in the Ukraine war. So
01:55Iran is obviously an adversary, an enemy. And so an attack on Iran, it's difficult to come out and condemn that. But at the same time, what there, there had been great hope here, after reports said that the Trump administration,
01:57was maybe trying to copy the JCPOA, that was the treaty between the US, EU and Iran, that eliminated its nuclear ambitions during the Obama administration. Donald Trump ended that treaty during his first term. The Europeans tried to keep it going without the US. It did a lot of
02:15It didn't work. And Iran started its enrichment again, according to all reports. And so there was hope that maybe there was a diplomatic solution here. That is the way things seem to be moving. And then Israel on
02:37There's no hope of that now. And so the Europeans now don't really have much of a role. They had a role when there was the prospect of a diplomatic solution. Now we're unlikely to see any unified response coming out of this foreign ministers meeting here in Brussels, because they're so divided, but also because there just isn't that much they can do.
03:01Dave, meanwhile, foreign ministers are meeting today amid fears, of course, if Iran retaliates, European countries could be dragged further into the conflict.
03:14Exactly. And you heard that concern expressed by Kayakalas when she was coming in precisely about the closing of the Strait of Hormuz that would have a devastating impact economically on Europe. And it might mean that Europe is expected to make some kind of response along with the United States.
03:31To stop that blockade. Certainly if that blockade goes ahead by Iran, the United States is likely to respond and Europeans would likely be called to back up the United States in that operation. The question, of course, is whether the Europeans will be willing to do that. Of course, they will want to see an end to that blockade because it would have devastating effects here. But at the same time, there will be huge reluctance to get involved with the United States in a war in the Middle East yet again.
04:00Yet again, that has not gone well in the past. It is not popular with citizens and particularly with this regime in the United States. It would not be a good look for European governments to be cooperating with Donald Trump on this to their citizens.
