European allies rattled after targeted killing

Post-Gazette wire services

European leaders on Friday warned that the targeted killing of Iran’s top military commander by the United States could unleash an unpredictable blowback, putting allied troops at risk, straining already troubled trans-Atlantic ties and dealing a death blow to the Iran nuclear deal.

German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said that the Trump administration’s order to kill Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani, the head of Iran’s elite Quds Force, had come after “a series of dangerous provocations by Iran” but had “not made it easier to reduce tensions.”

Mr. Maas said he had expressed his concerns “clearly” to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who called his British and German counterparts on Friday.

For those in Europe who may have wished to paper over differences with the United States and put a Band-Aid on world problems

for the duration of the Trump era, their hopes appeared to dim.

Several European diplomats said Friday that they were not aware of any warning from Washington ahead of the strike on Gen. Soleimani in Baghdad, although the mission was almost certain to increase the security risk for hundreds of European troops and for other European citizens in the region.

The Pentagon described the killing as a “defensive action.” Iran vowed “severe revenge.”

Although the president insisted he took the action to avoid a war with Iran, the continuing threats further rattled foreign capitals, global markets and Capitol Hill, where Democrats demanded more information about the strike and Mr. Trump’s grounds for taking such a provocative move without consulting Congress.

In Italy, Nathalie Tocci, the director of the Romebased Italian International Affairs Institute, said the strike against Soleimani was “irresponsible madness” that was likely to expose Europeans in the Middle East.

European officials generally avoided criticizing the U.S. move. They blamed Iran for provocative actions such as attacks on tankers in the Straits of Hormuz and on Saudi oil fields.

Donald Tusk, who was president of the European Council until November, was more blunt about the U.S. role, tweeting that “President Trump’s decisions provoke global risks and his intentions remain unclear.” Still, Mr. Tusk urged that Europe and the United States need to “maintain trans-Atlantic unity in the face of the approaching political earthquake.”

European leaders said they feared the strike could mark the final end to their struggling efforts to preserve the Iran nuclear deal. In 2018, Mr. Trump pulled the United States out of the agreement, sometimes known as JCPOA.

The Europeans stuck with it. They see restraining Iran’s nuclear enrichment as central to their own security. But they have struggled in their efforts to keep Tehran engaged, and, even before the strike, Iran was considering new steps to breach the deal.