Mohsen Rezaei Warns Europe Over Support for Israel

Mohsen Rezaei warned European supporters of Israel on Friday, October 30, that they would have to bear a cost for their position toward Iran. In an English-language post on X, he linked his warning to European backing for Israel and complaints about the financial consequences of war with Iran. He addressed Europe collectively, without naming an individual country. “Now it’s your turn to pay,” Rezaei wrote. He accused European supporters of applauding what he called Israeli war crimes, an allegation made in his post rather than an independently established finding. The statement did not identify a specific retaliatory measure, financial amount or deadline. It also did not set out a concrete next step for European governments to take. The warning recalled language used by German Chancellor Friedrich Merz during the G7 summit in Canada on June 17, 2025. In an interview that day, Merz described Israel’s action against Iran as doing the “dirty work” for others. Those remarks preceded Friday’s warning by more than a year and were not a response to the new post. Merz attributed violence beyond Iran’s borders to the regime in Tehran, specifically naming its support for Hamas and Hezbollah. He said Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack would not have been possible without that regime. In the same interview, he argued that a return to negotiations could remove the need for further military intervention.