In Europe, an Emboldened Iran Contributes to a Sense of Anxiety

On Veterans Day this past week, President Trump declared that his decision to go to war with Iran had been a complete success.

“When this conflict is over, and it will be soon,” he said, speaking on a blustery morning from Arlington National Cemetery outside Washington, “the entire world will be a much safer and better place, more peaceful place.”

That is not how it feels in Europe.

A growing number of attempted terrorist attacks across the continent and in Britain, including a foiled plot against a major American military base, arson attacks on Jewish community sites and cyberattacks that raised temperatures in refrigerators and blood banks are rattling national security officials and unnerving the public. Many have been attributed to Iran or to proxies acting on its behalf.

The sense of global unease was heightened when the U.S. government grounded all air travel for hours on Friday in what officials later said was a technical issue.

European residents had already grown frustrated before the most recent round of turmoil. The economic consequences of the war that Mr. Trump and the Israeli government started against Iran in February have piled up: Gas prices are higher because of disruptions of oil deliveries through the Strait of Hormuz. Groceries cost more. Heating homes in winter has become far less affordable.

And in recent weeks, the effect has grown darker as security officials have accused Iran or its proxies of conducting a series of terrorism-related plots. In September, U.S. prosecutors say, an Iraqi man, an Iranian operative and a senior operative for an Iran proxy group in a New York jail plotted to attack R.A.F. Fairford, an air base in England used by American bombers. They did not succeed, but the effort prompted a major security incident.

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