Europe’s View on Operation Epic Fury
From Brussels Sprouts by Center for a New American Security | CNAS
March 5, 2026 · 53 min · Episode 73
About this episode
The episode discusses Europe's divided response to the U.S. military campaign Operation Epic Fury against Iran.
On February 28, the United States launched Operation Epic Fury, a major military campaign against Iran carried out alongside Israeli strikes. The opening wave targeted Iranian command and control nodes, missile forces, and military infrastructure across multiple cities and included a decapitation strike that killed the supreme leader. The conflict quickly spread beyond Iran itself. Tehran has retaliated with missile and drone strikes across the Gulf, hitting U.S. and allied targets in countries including Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates, and even striking the British military base in Cyprus.From Europe, the response has been sharply divided. Spain’s government has rejected what it called the “unilateral military action” by the United States and Israel and denied U.S. forces the use of Spanish bases for the operations. Sitting with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz in the White House, President Donald Trump slammed Spain’s position and threatened to cut off trade with Madrid. And Spain hasn’t been Trump's only target—Trump has been highly critical of UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer. After Starmer said the UK did not support regime change from the sky and…
Topics covered
- military operations
- international relations
- European response
- U.S. foreign policy
- Iran conflict
Keywords
- Operation Epic Fury
- Iran
- U.S. military
- European response
- Donald Trump
- Keir Starmer
- Friedrich Merz
- Spain
- UK
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: United States, Spain, UK, Iran
Places: Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Cyprus
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