Iran’s Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Aragchi has declared that Europe is experiencing severe “blowback” for its compliance with Washington’s abandonment of the Iranian nuclear agreement, drawing parallels to current transatlantic trade tensions. The statement came shortly after European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen addressed the World Economic Forum in Davos, vowing that the EU would respond “unflinchingly, united and proportionally” to President Donald Trump’s threatened tariffs on European goods.
The current diplomatic friction stems from Trump’s recent threat to impose 10% tariffs on eight European nations that opposed his proposal to acquire Greenland, a semi-autonomous Danish territory. Von der Leyen maintained that the EU still considers the United States a vital ally but cautioned against escalating trade conflicts, emphasizing that “a deal is a deal” and that “when friends shake hands, it must mean something”—referencing the EU-US trade agreement signed in July.
Aragchi responded through social media platform X, accusing European powers of selective adherence to international agreements. He reminded the E3 alliance (France, Germany, and the United Kingdom) that they “faithfully obeyed and even abetted” Trump’s unilateral withdrawal from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) during his first term in May 2018. The 2015 nuclear agreement had provided Iran relief from comprehensive economic sanctions in exchange for restrictions on its civilian nuclear program.
The foreign minister warned that the EU’s current predicament with Trump’s tariff threats and his renewed determination to acquire Greenland—which Trump confirmed there was “no going back” from—demonstrates the consequences of undermining international agreements. Aragchi concluded that either all deals must be honored, or “no handshake means anything,” suggesting the alternative would be “nothing short of the breakdown of the international order.”
The escalating situation occurs against the backdrop of warnings from other world leaders at Davos, including French President Emmanuel Macron’s caution about a shift toward “a world without rules” and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney’s observation that the “old order is not coming back.”