In the summer of 2015, then-US President Barack Obama and his European allies basked in the warm, intoxicating glow of the nuclear deal with Iran. The sense of achievement was so overwhelming that the mere thought that Iran could continue manufacturing long-range ballistic missiles and sowing terror across the region never crossed anyone's mind.
In this vein, and in order to avoid tarnishing the festive atmosphere or heaven forbid nip the nuclear deal in the bud, the British chose to conceal the incriminating information from the media about the bomb-making factories Hezbollah had built on Iran's behalf in the northwest of London. This evidence was hidden not only from the media but from members of parliament, some of whom, it isn't a secret, wouldn't have approved the deal.
London is just one of the global terrorist hubs Iran sought to establish at the height of negotiations over its nuclear program. The incriminating evidence provided by Israeli intelligence – and the arrests that followed – were reported on in the United States, Thailand, and Cyprus, but the story was buried in the United Kingdom. And in their desire to avoid making the Iranians angry, it also took the British more than three years, until February 2019, to publicly state that there is no difference between Hezbollah's military and political wings and to add the Lebanon-based group to its list of terrorist organizations.
What's sad about this story is that over these past four years the Europeans have not changed their approach to Tehran very much. Iran is straining under the economic sanctions imposed by the United States. The Iranian economy is crumbling. Its oil exports have plummeted from over one million barrels per day to less than 400,000. One US dollar is now worth around 50,000 rials, while inflation has skyrocketed to above 40%.
But instead of exploiting the situation to pressure Iran, Germany's foreign minister rushed to Tehran on Monday to urge the Iranians not to withdraw from the nuclear deal and to promise they would soon be able to use the mechanism crafted by the EU to bypass the American sanctions.
Iran's foreign minister reminded his German counterpart that Tehran's ultimatum for "solving the problem" created by the White House would expire in less than one month. In the meantime, the International Atomic Energy Agency confirmed on Monday that Iran has started accelerating its uranium enrichment, although still to within the parameters of the nuclear deal.
At their joint press conference, the two foreign ministers failed to address the new ballistic missile unveiled by the Iranians this week or the Islamic republic's ballistic missile program, which continues to operate unabated. Nor any mention of Hezbollah, whose fighters, under Iranian orders, continue helping the Syrian army drop oil drums on the civilian population in Idlib; the rebels in Yemen, who are raining missiles on Saudi Arabia; or the pro-Iranian Shiite militias in Iraq, who are preparing to attack American forces stationed there if and when a conflict erupts between Iran and the US
The British in particular and the Europeans in general didn't need the information from Israel to understand that Hezbollah is the tip of Iran's terrorist spear, not just in the Middle East but across the globe. Anyone who wants to stop the Iranians must also handle their messenger.
