I'm John Batscher. I'm joined by my colleague and friend Bill Rajio, Senior Fellow Foundation for Defense of Democracy,

and we're looking at the Iran War from the European point of view initially, and we welcome

Edmund Fitton Brown, ambassador from the UK to Yemen once upon a time, then for many years a UN

official looking at the conflict zone as we are now.

And the question of, is this a Middle Eastern conflict or is it a global conflict?

It is undetermined for the history books, but right now the headline writers are using the term wider war,

as in this headline from London in these last hours.

This is the Financial Times.

Middle East War Live.

Germany and UK refuse to be drawn into wider war.

Subhead, Japan and France dismiss prospect of sending vessels to help reopen Strait of Hormuz.

Edmund, I come to you with the immediate troubles in that the President of the United States, using rough language,

has asked, demanded, depending on the headline you're reading,

required, suggested, threatened,

all these words have been used in these last hours,

that they join in the Strait of Hormuz battle with the Iranian regime that is now using sea mines, we're told,

some floating, some fixed, some triggered from shore, some dropped by dows, to close the Strait

of Hormuz and threaten the world's economy. In other words,

war on commerce. Europe is not going to participate after a meeting of the foreign ministers

collectively. Some use very harsh language. For example, Luxembourg called the president's remarks

blackmail. Poland has suggested diplomacy.

From the European point of view, this is a mixed picture.

...