The United States and Israel have launched a war on Iran — killing Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and top advisers — with aims that appear to shift between forcing a nuclear deal and pursuing regime change. Paul Taylor is joined by Sanam Vakil, Director, Middle East and North Africa Programme at the Chatham House, and Mihai Chihaia, Policy Analyst at the European Policy Centre, to unpack the war’s unclear objectives, the risks of wider regional escalation (from strikes on Gulf infrastructure to proxy attacks and global terrorism), and the economic shockwaves already hitting Europe through spiking oil and liqufied natural gas (LNG) prices.

The conversation also examines how Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu have framed the conflict, why the EU and the E3 (Britain, France and Germany) have struggled to hold a consistent line, and what — if anything — Europeans can realistically do now.