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A war between the U.S. and Iran is the last thing that Europe needed. Tehran’s throttling of the Strait of Hormuz has caused global energy prices to soar, threatening Europe’s stagnant economies with inflation and fuel rationing. The war that U.S. President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu started on February 28 also distracts Washington from Europe’s primary strategic concern, Ukraine, and makes valuable Patriot missile interceptors more scarce. Trump has been badgering NATO countries to get involved to help the U.S. reopen the Strait of Hormuz, but so far, the response has been a resounding no. As much as Europeans are loath to help Trump, they also have a strategic interest in keeping the strait open, where about 20 percent of the world’s oil flows through.
I discussed this summit with Dave Keating, who writes the Gulf Stream Blues newsletter. He is a Brussels-based journalist who focuses on European politics, and is also the author of a new book about Europe’s reliance on the U:S., The Owned Continent.
You can watch the conversation above or download it as a podcast.
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