Europe's balancing act on Iran

Brussels Playbook Podcast

POLITICO

News, Politics, News Commentary

4.4 • 204 Ratings

🗓️ 2 March 2026

⏱️ 16 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

After a weekend of U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran — and the killing of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei — Brussels is moving to coordinate its diplomatic response. EU ambassadors convened, foreign ministers met online and Ursula von der Leyen called the Defense College. But as tensions escalate across the region, is Europe shaping events — or reacting to them? Zoya Sheftalovich and Nick Vinocur unpack the EU’s balancing act: condemning Iran’s retaliation, avoiding direct criticism of Washington and trying to remain strategically relevant in a crisis unfolding beyond its borders. Plus: Emmanuel Macron unveils his vision for Europe’s nuclear future from France’s submarine base — and in Brussels, a debate over whether 250,000 EU citizens living in the Belgian capital should get the right to vote in regional elections. You can reach us on our WhatsApp at: +32 491 05 06 29. **A message from Amazon: Across Europe, businesses are growing with the AWS Cloud to build innovative, scalable products. From Europe’s largest enterprises and government agencies to the continent’s fastest growing startups, learn more about how AWS Cloud is helping businesses across Europe grow at ⁠AWS.eu⁠.** Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Today's episode is presented by Amazon.
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0:11.9	partner with Amazon to grow their business.
0:14.7	Learn more at aboutamazon.e.u.
0:18.4	Good morning. It's Monday, March 2, and this is the Brussels Playbook podcast.
0:28.4	The vibe in Brussels today is tense, as European capitals race to piece together a unified response
0:35.2	after the US and Israel bombarded Iran and killed
0:38.7	supreme leader Ali Khamini over the weekend.
0:42.0	Also on the pod today, Emmanuel Macron is unveiling his vision for Europe's nuclear future.
0:47.0	And there's a call for EU citizens to get more of a say in Belgian regional politics.
0:51.3	I'm on board for that one.
0:53.2	I'm Zoro Shafdlovich, Politico's chief
0:55.2	for you correspondent. And with me today is our chief foreign affairs correspondent, Nick Vinnikor. Hey, Nick,
1:00.2	you're a pretty apt guest today. It's my time to shine, right? It sure is. Did you get a
1:06.4	break at all this weekend? Because you wrote an emergency playbook on Sunday. You've been helming
1:10.2	playbook for Monday. What's going on? If there was one, I missed it. But this is what we live for in
1:16.5	this, pa. It really is. All right. Well, Nick, let's start with Iran. Brussels has woken up to a
1:24.1	pretty different Middle East this morning after the U.S. and Israeli strikes over the
1:27.9	weekend. And we're looking at really regime change in Tehran, right? Because Khomeini is gone and now
1:34.7	what's going to come next? Yeah. So it's been really interesting seeing how the reactions have
1:40.3	evolved very quickly. We had an initial phase that I might compare to the kind of Venezuela
	...

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