European leaders are warning of a looming global economic crisis as the war on Iran, led by the United States and Israel, approaches the one month mark. German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius described the conflict as an economic “catastrophe,” while the OECD downgraded growth forecasts for several major economies, including the United Kingdom, according to Al Jazeera News.
Speaking in Canberra alongside Australian Defence Minister Richard Marles, Pistorius said Berlin was ready to help secure peace but warned that the scale of the conflict was already damaging economies worldwide. “This war is a catastrophe for the world’s economies. The impact is absolutely evident already now,” he said.
Pistorius added that Germany had not been consulted before the US and Israel launched their campaign against Iran on February 28. “Nobody asked us before,” he told reporters. “It’s not our war, and we don’t want to get sucked into it. There is no strategy, no clear objective and, worst of all, no exit plan.”
He called for an immediate ceasefire and promised that Germany would take part in efforts to secure freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz—vital to the world’s energy supply—once the fighting stops.
Meanwhile, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) warned that the conflict could derail global recovery. It cut the United Kingdom’s 2026 growth forecast to just 0.7 percent, citing soaring energy prices and fiscal tightening, while trimming eurozone forecasts and slightly upgrading the US outlook.
In Europe, fears are deepening. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen urged new talks with Iran and appealed to EU members to begin filling gas reserves early for next winter. Gas prices across the bloc have jumped more than 30 percent since Israel’s strike on Iran’s South Pars gasfield and Tehran’s retaliation against Qatar’s Ras Laffan facility.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez went further, calling the war “far worse than the invasion of Iraq” and denouncing it as “unjustifiable.”
As the fighting grinds on, Europe’s warnings reflect a growing fear: that another Middle Eastern conflict could spark not just regional turmoil but a global economic storm.
