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'Iran expected Europeans to work to stop Israeli and U.S. war; they didn't even condemn the aggression'

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

Jul 3, 2025

London, IRNA -- Iran had expected some European states to work to stop Israeli and U.S. strikes on Iran, but they even refused to condemn that aggression, Ambassador to Italy Mohammad-Reza Saboori says.

"What we saw was that they supported and remained silent [toward the aggression]," Saboori told Italy's news agency Agenzia Nova.

"The Islamic Republic, as an independent state and member of the United Nations, had been attacked and they (the European states) should have condemned that. This was the first step that should have been taken," he said.

The Israeli regime attacked Iran in an unprovoked act of aggression overnight on June 13. A number of top Iranian military and security officials were assassinated in targeted strikes. Residential buildings were directly struck. So were Iranian nuclear facilities.

Later that same day, the Iranian Armed Forces promised to "open the gates of hell" to Israel and began waves of punitive strikes inside the Israeli-occupied territories, hitting sensitive sites in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, and Haifa with salvos of missiles and drones.

On June 22, the United States violated Iranian airspace and carried out strikes against three Iranian nuclear facilities. Iran responded a day later by launching missiles at the United States' largest military base in West Asia, the headquarters of the United States Air Forces Central Command in Qatar. A day after that, on June 24, Israel ceased fire.

Iran had been involved in indirect negotiations with the United States over its nuclear program and U.S. and international sanctions on the Islamic Republic when Israel attacked. New talks were due to take place shortly but were effectively canceled when the Israeli war began and the U.S. later joined the Tel Aviv regime.

Italy and Oman had hosted earlier rounds of the indirect negotiations between Iran and the United States.

At least 935 Iranians were killed in the aggression, including 140 women and children. Over 5,640 people were also wounded.

Saboori, the Iranian ambassador, offered a bleak assessment of Iran's relations with the European Union.

"Unfortunately, I must say that relations between Iran and the European Union suffer from a mix of misunderstandings, miscalculations, misbehavior, and double standards on the part of Western states," even as the two sides have common grounds for cooperation, he said.

The E.U., Saboori added, has chosen the path of confrontation instead of interaction based on dialogue.

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