Storm over the Alliance

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their pique with the allies. Snapped a White House aide: "We wound up just as mad at the allies as at Iran." Complained a senior European expert at the State Department: "The allies have been slow, aggravating beyond belief and sometimes plain infuriating." And a White House staffer noted that "I don't think that we'll let the Europeans forget this."

As the week went on, the White House tried to persuade its allies that it made more sense to support the comparatively mild measure of leveling sanctions against Iran than it did to risk having the U.S. take military action that could disrupt the flow of oil to Europe and Japan. Says one Administration official: "It is not a very subtle point. They understand that the more pressure we can put on now, the less we'll have to squeeze later. And they know that we don't have much left to squeeze with."

Finally the message got through. Declared British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher: "The United States is entitled to look to Europe for support in her great moment of need." Japan's Prime Minister, Masayoshi Ohira similarly pledged support of the U.S., saying it comes before oil imports from Iran. And West Germany's Schmidt even seemed offended that Americans would feel that they had been "left in the lurch by us." He declared: "We know that the fundamental security of the Federal Republic is with the U.S., even when one has doubts about some of the measures demanded from us." In a phone call to Carter, the Chancellor praised the President's TV performance and expressed a general willingness to back him. He asked, however, that Carter be patient with the consultative process required within the European Community.

Exactly what the Europeans are prepared to do—or not do—will become clear at this week's Luxembourg meeting of European Community foreign ministers (which will be attended by Japanese Foreign Minister Saburo Okita) or at next week's European Community summit. The organization's experts have prepared memos outlining the economic and legal aspects of a potential boycott of Iran. One Community study argues that an economic boycott, in concert with the U.S. and Japan, could impose much more damage on Iran than that country could inflict in retaliation by cutting off oil shipments. Reason: in the wake of the Iranian crisis, the allies have gradually been reducing their purchases of oil from Tehran, but Iranian industry still needs West European goods to keep going. E.C. members now get only 3% of their oil from Iran, and Japan 10%.

E.C. endorsement of a boycott or other economic sanctions will require a unanimous agreement, a fact of Community life that in the past has stymied bold initiatives. As before, the French seem to be the main obstacle. While the European allies would all greatly prefer to act under the Community's umbrella, some appear to be edging toward taking tough measures unilaterally to back the U.S. Bonn and the powerful West German business community now favor economic moves against Iran that they once opposed. Said Otto Wolff von Amerongen, president of the West German Chambers of Industry and Commerce: "The time has now come to support the Americans. Sanctions are in order."

Schmidt's Cabinet meeting this week is expected to approve measures that