Belgium’s former Prime Minister Charles Michel is spearheading a Europe-wide campaign to persuade governments to ditch political and diplomatic engagement with the Iranian regime – and is urging US President Trump to end his illegal military attacks on the country.
Speaking in Brussels on Monday, Michel and other former European leaders, including fellow Belgian ex-premiers Guy Verhofstadt and Yves Leterme, called for a change of strategy.
"Europe needs to move beyond approaches that have failed to deliver lasting results and consider new options towards Iran," they stated in a joint declaration.
Michel, also a former President of the European Council, stressed that the people of Iran, who had suffered “terrible oppression for many years” under the brutal theocratic regime must be at the heart of any process of democratic change.
He said Iran had exported terrorism, often through proxies, using hostages to blackmail Western governments and the nuclear threat “to try to grant themselves a kind of immunity and a right to oppress more."
“We have collectively failed,” Michel said. “We were wrongly convinced that a diplomatic path would be the right path. Israel and the United States launched a military intervention in Iran, which is not in line with international law and has not led to an improvement in the situation of the people of Iran or of creating more stability in the Middle East.”
Past, present and future failures
As former heads of government, he acknowledged that they could speak with more freedom. “It is our responsibility to encourage leaders in office to be brave and more courageous. The status quo cannot be an option. We are calling on European countries to ask themselves: ‘What can we do to be to be on the right side of history today?’”
Michel’s sentiments were echoed at a joint press conference in the Residence Palace by John Bercow, former Speaker of the British House of Commons, Joachim Rücker, ex-President of the UN Human Rights Council, and Hans-Ulrich Seidt, Germany’s former Ambassador to Afghanistan.
Bercow, in particular, was deeply critical of the US President: “We all know that it would probably be a first in our lived experience on this planet if we were to hear President Trump utter the words, ‘I was wrong’."
"All we need is for the president, luxuriating in the larva of his supremely powerful position on the global throne, to accept that the policy upon which he has embarked and to which he has rigidly adhered has not manifested in the outcome that he sought," he said. "Physical force has failed. His approach of blather and threat and violence, followed by more blather and more threat and more violence, has failed, is failing, and palpably, incontrovertibly, manifestly will go on failing.”
Following the event, Michel took part in a behind-closed-doors conference with former politicians and diplomats, together with leaders of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), a coalition of exiled democratic groups.
"Change will not come by working with the regime or outside military intervention," Farzin Hashemi, a member of the NCRI Foreign Affairs Committee, told the Brussels Times. "It will come from the Iranian people and the resistance inside Iran. The NCRI has a clear programme. Within six months of the overthrow of the regime, there will be an election and power will be handed to the elected representatives. The current regime doesn’t have popular support. That’s why they are executing so many opponents."
According to Amnesty International, Iran executed at least 2,159 people in 2025 – the highest figure recorded since 1981.
The full list of signatories to the call by former European leaders for a change in strategy on Iran are as follows:
Charles Michel — Former Prime Minister of Belgium; Former President of the European Council
Paolo Gentiloni — Former Prime Minister of Italy
Jean-Pierre Raffarin — Former Prime Minister of France
Geir H. Haarde — Former Prime Minister of Iceland
Guy Verhofstadt — Former Prime Minister of Belgium
Enda Kenny — Former Prime Minister of Ireland
Yves Leterme — Former Prime Minister of Belgium
Lamberto Zannier — Former Secretary General of the OSCE
Eamon Gilmore — Former EU Special Representative for Human Rights; Former Foreign Minister of Ireland
Georgi Bliznashki — Former Prime Minister of Bulgaria
Borut Pahor — Former President of Slovenia
Lawrence Gonzi — Former Prime Minister of Malta
Carlo Cottarelli — Former Prime Minister-Designate of Italy
Petre Roman — Former Prime Minister of Romania
Avdullah Hoti — Former Prime Minister of Kosovo
Jeppe Kofod — Former Foreign Minister of Denmark
Joachim Rücker — Former President of the UN Human Rights Council
Peter Altmaier — Former Federal Minister for Economic Affairs and Energy of Germany
Dick Spring — Former Foreign Minister of Ireland
Hans-Ulrich Seidt — Former German Ambassador to Afghanistan
Alexandru Athanasiu — Former Prime Minister of Romania
Joseph Muscat — Former Prime Minister of Malta
Erkki Tuomioja — Former Foreign Minister of FinlandCharles Michel Leads European Call for New Strategy on Iran
