With the US and Iran on the brink of war, what has been striking over the last 48 hours is the conspicuous silence of world leaders. One explanation, given that I write this from within the USA, is that the US media's focus on Trump and Iran blocks out everything else. But looking at the press' response in Europe the silence is deafening.
Le Monde on its website today has no coverage of Trump's address at all. The Frankfurter Allgemeine notes Germany's foreign minister condemning the Iranian missile strike but calling for de-escalation; no comment from Angela Merkel. Britain's Foreign Secretary made a similar statement yesterday, but the Guardian and the Telegraph both focused on the Prime Minister's difficulties with getting Brexit done. One can only assume that there was either tacit or explicit agreement amongst the allies that any public comments suggesting de-escalation would be counterproductive, given Trump's strained relations with European leaders, and that private communications would be more effective. They seem to have concluded that allowing Trump to take the limelight and the credit for stating the obvious is an important prerequisite to achieving their international policy goals.
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