The joint statement from the E3 — France, Germany, and the United Kingdom — is a master class in evasion. “We did not participate in these strikes, but are in close contact with our international partners, including the United States and Israel,” they declared. The text also lists all the references and rationalizations used by Iran hawks — “nuclear program, ballistic missile program, regional destabilization and repression against its own people.”

Not a single reference to the international law that explicitly prohibits aggression. It is particularly Orwellian that the European leaders “urge the Iranian leadership to seek a negotiated solution,” when Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi was literally doing exactly that the day earlier in Geneva.