PARIS (AP) — Three close allies of the United States said Sunday they are ready to join forces to defend their interests in the Middle East and stop Iran’s retaliatory missile and drone strikes following the killing of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, as others around the world raised concerns that the conflict sparked by coordinated U.S.-Israel attacks could spread into a wider war.

Britain, France and Germany said they will work with the U.S.

“We will take steps to defend our interests and those of our allies in the region, potentially through enabling necessary and proportionate defensive action to destroy Iran’s capability to fire missiles and drones at their source,” their statement said. “We have agreed to work together with the US and allies in the region on this matter.”

Iranian officials hurried to plan a future after the death of Khamenei, who had no designated successor, as some Iranians who had long suffered from political repression celebrated.

Pope Leo XIV, the first pope from the U.S. in the history of the Catholic Church, said he was “profoundly concerned” about the U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran and urged both sides to “stop the spiral of violence before it becomes an irreparable abyss.”

The statement by British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said they are “appalled” by Iran’s “reckless” strikes on their allies, which threaten their service members and citizens in the region.

British Defense Minister John Healey said Iranian missile and drone strikes came within a few hundred yards of a group of 300 British military personnel in Bahrain