TEHRAN (Iran News) – In recent decades Europe, despite having richer civilization and culture, has been losing the ground to the U.S. and its arrogance, and unfortunately by blindly following the Americans, it has lost its reputation and stance in the world and especially in the international issues.
The Islamic Republic has repeatedly asked countries and especially the European states to be independent and not to obey blindly what the U.S. says despite their repeated suffering of humiliations. If we have a glance at the history and some major events in the past, we will see the U.S. as the landlord and Europe as a vassal which has to obey what its master orders.
The best example for this claim can be seen at the time of the Persian Gulf war when the U.S. attacked Iraq after accusing the Iraqi regime of having weapons of mass destruction. Although the UN found no evidence for this claim, the Americans unilaterally decided to attack Iraq and the UK followed blindly the path of the Americans and joined the American troops. At that time, British media launched a scathing attack on the then British Prime Minister Tony Blair for acting against the UN decision and following the U.S. in this invasion.
British media said, “Britain is just wagging its tail to whatever the United States says … Bush and Blair are creating big problems for the world.” It was very interesting that the UK and U.S. allies were likened to the tail of the U.S.
Now after almost two decades after that event, European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell has voiced concern over Europe’s diminishing role in the world, warning that there is a high likelihood of the EU losing its position as a full-fledged player in the international arena and becoming an object of world powers’ policy.
Borrell made the remarks in a Sunday blog post, stressing that the EU should work on strengthening both European and NATO security capacities in order to prevent the risk of losing its player status in international affairs.
“Europeans are at risk of becoming more and more an object and not a player in international affairs, reacting to other people’s decisions, instead of driving and shaping events ourselves,” Borrell said.
He went on to say the EU should avoid its usual tendency “to have an abstract, and frankly divisive, debate” on whether it should either strengthen Europe’s own security capacities or do so in NATO, emphasizing that it clearly needs to do both.
Borrell further pointed to a multi-polar dynamic where actors like Russia and China are seeking to increase their sphere of influence, either regionally or globally.
He suggested that Europe can react to the geostrategic developments either by “burying its head in the sand” and remaining a regional actor, or find ways to become more proactive.
Elsewhere in his remarks, Borrell said the United States expects Europeans to carry a greater share of responsibility for their own and world’s security, adding that he plans to travel to Washington in the coming days to discuss these issues with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
He also noted that the EU’s new Strategic Compass plan, which will lay out Europe’s security and defense strategy until 2030, will be drafted before the end of this year.
The latest development comes as top EU officials have branded as a “wake-up call” the recent decision by the United States and Britain to exclude France from a $40-billion agreement to supply conventional submarines to Australia.
French and German ministers have also said that the Western decision to strip France of the submarine supply contract was a stark reminder the EU must bolster its capacity to act independently.
Back in September, the U.S., Britain, and Australia established a security alliance – dubbed AUKUS – for the Indo-Pacific to protect what they called their shared interests and help Australia acquire American nuclear-powered submarines.
The new security pact effectively scuttled a previous $40 billion deal between France and Australia that was signed to supply French-designed conventional diesel-electric submarines to the Australians.
Borrell has already said the AUKUS alliance carries significant implications for the future of EU relations with Washington.
The top EU official’s confession on Europe’s losing its power is a simple example to the weakness of countries of this continent in dealing with the U.S and remaining independent.
In observing their JCPOA obligations, Europeans unfortunately turned their back to Iran and followed the U.S. unilateral sanctions and losing a good market and powerful country in the region while they could take advantage of the rift between Tehran and Washington to boost trade with Tehran, strengthen their international position and become influential forces.
If Europe does not separate its path from the U.S.’s, it will have no better fate than what the U.S. has had internationally, and the wave of hatred and mistrust will sweep away it. Now it is better for Europe to be independent and to get logical stands regarding any international issue especially in the Middle East, or else it loses historic reputation just for the sake of blindly following a falling power, the U.S.
