Xavier Bettel was invited onto the BBC to discuss the war being waged by the United States and Israel against Iran, and the Foreign Minister did not hold back, combining strong criticism with his trademark dry wit.
Bettel began by reiterating Europe’s fundamental disagreement with the American offensive launched at the end of winter. “No I will never support any war, because at the end there is no winner there’s just losers and the civil population are the ones paying a high price”, he said. “There is always someone who starts a war, and that is the easiest part. The most complicated part is to end the war.”
On the question of Iran’s nuclear threat, Bettel was openly sceptical. He noted with some irony that he had been hearing warnings from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about Iran being weeks away from obtaining a nuclear weapon for the past 20 years. “They are ready in two months or three months that is the sentence I always hear”, Bettel quipped. He was equally unconvinced by the case for the strikes already carried out, recalling how previous US airstrikes against suspected Iranian nuclear facilities, which had been presented as decisive blows that would eliminate the threat once and for all, also showed that the problem cannot be solved so quickly.
When asked about Donald Trump’s frustration at the lack of military support from Western allies, Bettel was blunt. Europe, he said, was “not asked nor consulted” when the United States and Israel launched their offensive. “It was a unilateral decision from Israel and the United States”, Bettel said, making clear that had Washington sought coordinated action from the outset, it would have received a different response from its allies. “But if you take decisions alone and then ask ‘now you need to help us’, I understand the colleagues that say it’s problematic for them. They do not want to enter a war they are not part of.”
He was equally clear on where Luxembourg’s obligations lie: the country will respond when an attack is carried out against a NATO member state. This is not that situation.
Bettel reserved his most memorable line for the question of what Luxembourg could realistically contribute to operations in the Strait of Hormuz. “I’m very honest with you and Im sorry to tell you I have no boats, I have no flotilla. We have one plane and we have 800 military, so don’t ask us to be the biggest participants in these operations.” He then added: “But I have good military music if you want.”
Despite the levity, Bettel was serious on the question of European defence spending, assuring viewers that Luxembourg had reacted swiftly to the wake-up call delivered by the American president on the subject and had increased its defence expenditure accordingly.
