Foreign ministers from European Union member countries are meeting in Luxembourg on Monday to discuss strengthening Ukraine’s air defenses in its war against Russia and an expansion of sanctions targeting Iran after the attack on Israel.
As Moscow has stepped up attacks on Ukrainian energy infrastructure and other targets, EU governments are under pressure to provide Kyiv with additional air defense systems. Ukraine demands more American-made Patriot systems.
Good news came over the weekend from Washington, where the US House of Representatives approved additional aid of more than $60 billion to Ukraine, as requested for several months by US President Joe Biden.
However, the head of European diplomacy, Josep Borrell, and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg urged EU countries to step up their own support for Kyiv by providing it with more military equipment.
For the moment, Germany is the only member of the community bloc to have announced the additional shipment of Patriot systems.
European defense ministers, as well as Ukrainian foreign and defense ministers, will also take part in discussions on the war in Ukraine.
The other major issue on the agenda is the situation in the Middle East, where tensions have increased with the reciprocal attacks carried out by Israel and Iran on the sidelines of the war in the Gaza Strip.
It is expected that European foreign ministers will seek to agree on the extent of additional sanctions against Iran, already targeted by various EU measures relating in particular to its arms program and the delivery of drones. attack on Russia.
Meeting last week at a summit in Brussels, EU heads of state and government agreed to expand sanctions on Tehran, with many countries in the bloc favoring export sanctions. drones are also applied to Iranian missiles and deliveries to regional militias allied to Iran.
Furthermore, some European countries want the EU to find a way to designate the Revolutionary Guards, a powerful elite unit of the Iranian army, as a terrorist organization. Representatives, however, indicated that a legal basis was necessary to adopt such a measure, which would not necessarily achieve consensus within the bloc.
This article is originally published on zonebourse.com
