By John LaForge
Spain and Austria have refused to allow their airspace to be used by U.S. warplanes in the bombardment of Iran. Additionally, Italians so overwhelmingly oppose the U.S. and Israeli war, that even their right-wing Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has spoken out.
Meloni told Parliament March 14, “Threats are becoming more and more frightening. They’re multiplying, and the unilateral interventions carried outside the perimeter of international law — which is where we must place the American and Israeli intervention against the Iranian regime — interventions in which I say immediately, at the expense of any mistake, Italy will not take part and does not intend to take part.”
Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez was more emphatic, calling the war “absurd, cruel and illegal,” and saying on March 25: “Of course we are going to put all the resources of the state at the service of the people, to protect them from a war, a war on Iran which is not endorsed by the government of Spain. And I say to the right, and the far-right, that they cannot be supporting those who set fire to the world and then complain about the smoke….”
Mark Botanga, a Belgian Member of European Parliament outraged by the killing of children, said in Parliament March 11: “Most of you don’t condemn and even support Trump’s & Netanyahu’s war on Iran, yet claim to stand with the Iranian people. Now I dare you to say that to the eyes of that 7-year-old girl … that was killed when a U.S. Tomahawk missile hit her elementary school. Dare to admit to the 167 other victims in that school that you are offering European bases to U.S. killing machines. Tell the families of Tehran, a city of 10 million people, that you support the chemical warfare of Israel as it poisons the air with toxic fires and black rain that will cause cancers for decades…. Afghanistan, Libya, Syria, Iraq: your bombs never brought democracy and never will. They bring chaos, death, destruction, and the unbearable silence of children who will never come home.”
And António Costa, President of the European Council, wrote on social media, “Any targeting of civilian infrastructure … is illegal and unacceptable.”
Pope Rebukes Hegseth’s War Prayer
During a March 29 Palm Sunday mass in St. Peter’s Square, Pope Leo denounced the U.S. and Israeli war on Iran as “atrocious” and indirectly rebuked U.S. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth for a war prayer delivered in Washington, D.C.
Quoting a passage from the Christian Bible, the Pope said: “‘Even though you make many prayers, I will not listen: your hands are full of blood.’”
Hegseth ⸺ a white supremacist and religious fundamentalist tattooed with the papal Crusader cross, who titled his book “American Crusade,” and who paid $50,000 to a woman who accused him of sexual assault in 2017 ⸺ used a March 25 “Christian” worship service for military and civilian workers in Washington to pray for merciless killing. Hegseth prayed: “Let every round find its mark against the enemies of righteousness and our great nation. Give [U.S. warriors] wisdom in every decision, endurance for the trial ahead, unbreakable unity, and overwhelming violence of action against those who deserve no mercy.”
In his apparent rebuttal four days later, Pope Leo told tens of thousands of worshippers, “This is our God: Jesus, king of peace, who rejects war, whom no one can use to justify war. He does not listen to the prayers of those who wage war, but rejects them.”
In March, when Trump demanded military help in forcing open the Strait of Hormuz, even Nigel Farange, the leader of Britain’s right-wing Reform UK party, said England shouldn’t participate in “another foreign war.” Italy’s Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini bluntly refused saying, “Italy isn’t at war with anyone.” And when Trump asked allies for naval help, Boris Pistorious, Germany’s defense minister said “This is not our war; we have not started it.”
Elsewhere around the world, Oman declared the U.S. war a violation of international law and warned of regional destabilization. Algeria called it a “flagrant violation of sovereignty” and “American-Zionist aggression.” On April 2, over 100 U.S.-based international law experts signed an open letter calling the war “a clear violation of the UN Charter” involving possible violations of international humanitarian law, and “potential war crimes.” Detailing profound concerns about the war, the letter was signed by senior professors, leaders of prominent international law associations, non-governmental organizations, and legal clinics, former government legal advisors, and military law experts including former (U.S. military) Judge Advocates General.
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