President Emmanuel Macron attends a meeting of France's defence and security council after the Iran war ceasefire announcement. Photograph: Tom Nicholson/ReutersView image in fullscreenPresident Emmanuel Macron attends a meeting of France's defence and security council after the Iran war ceasefire announcement. Photograph: Tom Nicholson/Reuters‘A step back from the brink’: European leaders welcome US-Iran ceasefire Announcement of deal met with relief, and calls for strait of Hormuz to be reopened and permanent end to hostilities
European leaders have welcomed the US-Iran ceasefire deal, while calling for the reopening of the strait of Hormuz and a permanent end to hostilities, including in Lebanon.
The US and Iran agreed a two-week conditional ceasefire on Tuesday, including a temporary reopening of the strait of Hormuz, after last-minute diplomacy from Pakistan. The Israeli military said on Wednesday, however, that it was continuing “fighting and ground operations” in its war against the Lebanese militia Hezbollah, despite a statement from mediator Pakistan that Lebanon was included in the ceasefire.
France’s president, Emmanuel Macron, welcomed the ceasefire, but called for Lebanon, a former French protectorate, to be included in the deal. He said about 15 countries were mobilised “under French leadership” to facilitate the resumption of traffic through the strait of Hormuz, where around one -fifth of the world’s oil flows.
Spain’s prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, who has been the most outspoken western critic of Donald Trump’s war in Iran, issued a typically blunt reaction, saying his administration “will not applaud those who set the world on fire just because they show up with a bucket”.
In a post on X he said: “Ceasefires are always good news – especially if they lead to a just and lasting peace. But this momentary relief cannot make us forget the chaos, the destruction, and the lives lost.”
The German chancellor, Friedrich Merz, welcomed the ceasefire and called for a permanent end to the conflict. The goal now is “to negotiate a durable end to the war in the next days,” he said in a statement. “This can only be achieved by diplomacy.”
Merz, like his UK counterpart, Keir Starmer, sought to avoid antagonising Trump over the strikes, although European allies incurred his wrath anyway for refusing to join his war against Iran.
Starmer, who is travelling to the Gulf on Wednesday, wrote on X: “Together with our partners we must do all we can to support and sustain this ceasefire, turn it into a lasting agreement and reopen the strait of Hormuz.”
The EU’s foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, who is travelling to Saudi Arabia, described the agreement as a “step back from the brink” after weeks of escalation. “It creates a much-needed chance to tone down threats, stop missiles, restart shipping, and create space for diplomacy towards a lasting agreement,” she wrote on X, urging the reopening of the strait of Hormuz.
The European Council president, António Costa, urged all parties to uphold the ceasefire terms “in order to achieve sustainable peace in the region”. Two days ago, the former Portuguese prime minister had warned that any “targeting of civilian infrastructure, namely energy facilities”, would be “illegal and unacceptable. This applies to Russia’s war in Ukraine and it applies everywhere.” While his post did not name Trump, it followed the US president’s threat to obliterate Iran’s power plants and bridges.
The secretary general of the Norwegian Refugee Council, Jan Egeland, described the ceasefire as “wonderful news” for civilians on both sides of the Gulf. “Now we can scale up relief to the millions of refugees and displaced in Iran. But we have only some funding from Scandinavians. How come there are easily billions for war, but no funding for the victims of the war?” he wrote on X.
Additional reporting from Sam Jones in Madrid
