Added to the fact that Europe’s energy bills will likely remain elevated for weeks or even months if the ceasefire holds, a clear trend emerges: Europe is having to pay increasingly just to stay in a transatlantic alliance that has become very unpredictable.
“It’s a pattern,” said Nacho Sánchez Amor, a Spanish socialist lawmaker on the European Parliament’s Committee on Foreign Affairs. “In Gaza, we will pay for reconstruction. In Ukraine, we’re paying for the war — basically alone at this point. Now we might have to pay to clear the Strait of Hormuz.”
He added: “NATO is meant to be based on reciprocal loyalty. But this is not how it’s working.”
The next big challenge
In the hours after Trump announced his ceasefire deal on Tuesday evening Washington time, stepping back from threats of total annihilation against Iran, EU leaders applauded a diplomatic victory. The last-minute deal brought “much-needed” de-escalation, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen posted on social media.
But even as they breathed a sigh of relief, leaders were preparing for the next big challenge — how to reopen the strait. French President Emmanuel Macron, who has had conflicts with Trump over the war, said Wednesday that a group of 15 countries including France would “facilitate the resumption of maritime traffic” through the strait “once the conditions are right.”
Easier said than done. Even spread across the navies of several powers, including non-EU Australia and the U.K., the costs of such an operation would be substantial. The U.S.-led Operation Earnest Will, which involved protecting Kuwaiti tankers from Iranian attacks in 1987-1988, cost participating allied nations several hundred million dollars, likely more than $1 billion when adjusted for inflation.
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