European leaders expressed their concerns about the situation in the Gulf on the margins of the European Council on 20 and 21 June.
Tensions rose even higher on Thursday 20 June, when Iran shot down a US drone. While, according to Tehran, the aircraft was in its airspace, for Washington, it was in international airspace.
"We are following the situation closely and we are very concerned about the developments in the Gulf region", said European Council President Donald Tusk after the summit. “Our position is quite responsible”, he added. Mr Tusk said he saw no reason to intervene with a specific statement of their own on the subject.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron called for discussions. "We are counting on diplomatic negotiations and a political solution", Merkel said.
For Mr Macron, "we must avoid escalation”, because "we will not gain anything with escalation, and in particular military escalation”. He therefore invited "the parties to reason and now to discuss". According to him, the G20, on 28 and 29 June in Osaka (Japan), "will be an important forum for discussion".
Despite the urgency of the situation, the European Council did not discuss the Gulf, but, according to Merkel, the leaders' foreign affairs advisors did.
Asked about the lack of debate at the highest level, the President of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, recalled that foreign ministers and the High Representative had discussed it on Monday 17 in Luxembourg (see EUROPE 12276/1), and that the EU's position "had not changed" since then. The ministers had called for restraint and dialogue. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant with editorial staff)