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EU Foreign Policy Chief Says ‘Main Objective’ to Prevent Iran From Acquiring Nuclear Weapons
High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice-President of the European Commission Kaja Kallas speaks to the media on the day of the European Union Foreign Ministers meeting in Brussels, Belgium, Feb. 24, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Yves Herman
The European Union’s foreign policy chief has warned of Iran’s destabilizing role in the Middle East, emphasizing in a new interview that the bloc’s “main objective” in the region is to prevent Tehran from acquiring nuclear weapons.
During her first official trip to Israel this week, Kaja Kallas told the Israeli news outlet Ynet that the EU thinks there is a “window of opportunity” to mitigate the threat from Iran, whose regime she considers to be weaker than it has been in the past.
“Our main objective is that Iran does not acquire a nuclear weapon,” the top EU official said. “We clearly see what they are doing – not only in the Middle East, but also in helping Russia and conducting hybrid attacks against European countries. Our policies must be stronger.”
After a year of strained EU-Israel relations, Kallas visited the Jewish state on Monday, marking the first trip by an EU foreign minister to the country in more than a year.
During her visit, Kallas met with Israeli President Isaac Herzog, Foreign Minister Gideon Saar, and Opposition Leader Yair Lapid, as well as with families of hostages held in Gaza.
“We want to have good relations with Israel,” Kallas told Ynet. “I hope this visit is a milestone in that direction.”
During the interview, the EU official admitted that efforts to officially designate Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist organization are currently stalled due to a lack of consensus among member states.
“The discussions are ongoing, but EU foreign and security policy decisions require unanimity,” she said.
Iran is Hamas’s chief international backer, providing the Palestinian terrorist group with weapons, funding, and training.
According to Ynet, Kallas also referred to the Arab-led plan for Gaza reconstruction as “a good starting point,” but expressed concerns about funding.
“Right now, the European Union provides the bulk of aid to the Palestinians,” she said, urging Middle Eastern countries to take on a greater financial responsibility.
Kallas rejected US President Donald Trump’s plan to “take over” Gaza and develop it economically after Palestinians are resettled elsewhere, saying the EU doesn’t “support the involuntary displacement of populations.”
Trump said earlier this month that “nobody is expelling any Palestinians” from the enclave, seemingly suggesting that any resettlement outside of Gaza would be voluntary.
“The reconstruction plan is better because it allows people to stay in Gaza while it’s being rebuilt,” Kallas said. “It’s important that Palestinians can remain where they are and that no one is forced to leave their home.”
She reiterated the EU’s commitment to the two-state solution, saying it is the only viable outcome to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
However, Kallas also emphasized that “Hamas should have no role in the governance of Gaza,” highlighting it as a security issue for Israel that must be addressed.
“The Palestinian Authority is the best-suited entity to govern,” she told Ynet. “They need reforms, especially to root out corruption, and we are pressing them to do that. But alongside Israel’s security, the rights of Palestinians must be respected.”
Hamas-led Palestinian terrorists started the war in Gaza when they murdered 1,200 people and kidnapped 251 hostages during their invasion of and massacre across southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
Israel responded with a military campaign aimed at freeing the hostages and dismantling Hamas’s military and governing capabilities in neighboring Gaza.
“Who will ensure that terrorism doesn’t return to Gaza? We need to avoid another Oct. 7,” Kallas said.
Last week, Egypt made a new proposal aimed at restoring the Gaza ceasefire deal, following an escalation in violence after Israel resumed air and ground operations against the Palestinian terrorist group, effectively ending a two-month period of relative peace.
Israel says it resumed its military operations to force Hamas to release the remaining hostages it is holding in Gaza, adding that the terrorist group refused to agree to US proposals to extend the ceasefire.
During her interview, Kallas also reassured Jerusalem that there are no EU initiatives to sanction Israel.
“There are proposals to impose sanctions on violent settlers, but no one is talking about sanctioning Israel itself,” she said. “There have been calls to suspend the EU-Israel Association Agreement, but there is no consensus for that.”
The post EU Foreign Policy Chief Says ‘Main Objective’ to Prevent Iran From Acquiring Nuclear Weapons first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Former Columbia University President Appointed as UK Economic Adviser
Columbia University administrators and faculty, led by President Minouche Shafik, testified before the US House Committee on Education and the Workforce on April 17, 2024. Photo: Jack Gruber/Reuters Connect
i24 News – British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has named Minouche Shafik, former president of Columbia University, as his chief economic adviser at Downing Street, a move aimed at stabilizing the country’s fragile economy and averting a potential budget crisis.
Shafik, an economist of Egyptian origin with dual British and American nationality, has held senior roles at the Bank of England, the IMF, and the World Bank.
She later led the London School of Economics and was elevated to the House of Lords in 2020.
Her tenure in the United States was more turbulent. Shafik stepped down as president of Columbia University in 2024 after just a year in office, amid fierce criticism over her handling of pro-Palestinian protests following the Hamas attacks of October 7, 2023, and the subsequent war in Gaza.
US officials accused her of failing to confront antisemitism on campus, while students and faculty condemned her decision to call in police to dismantle protest encampments.
Since returning to Britain, Shafik has played an active role in policy and cultural institutions. She advised Foreign Secretary David Lammy on international aid reform, has chaired the Victoria & Albert Museum since January, and led the “Economy 2030” inquiry for the Resolution Foundation, where she argued for reforms to the UK’s system of wealth taxation.
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Israel Mulls West Bank Annexation in Response to Moves to Recognize Palestine
The Jordan Valley. Photo: Юкатан via Wikimedia Commons.
Israel is considering annexation in the West Bank as a possible response to France and other countries recognizing a Palestinian state, according to three Israeli officials and the idea will be discussed further on Sunday, another official said.
Extension of Israeli sovereignty to the West Bank – de facto annexation of land captured in the 1967 Middle East war – was on the agenda for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s security cabinet meeting late on Sunday that is expected to focus on the Gaza war, a member of the small circle of ministers said.
It is unclear where precisely any such measure would be applied and when, whether only in Israeli settlements or some of them, or in specific areas of the West Bank like the Jordan Valley and whether any concrete steps, which would likely entail a lengthy legislative process, would follow discussions.
Any step toward annexation in the West Bank would likely draw widespread condemnation from the Palestinians, who seek the territory for a future state, as well as Arab and Western countries. It is unclear where US President Donald Trump stands on the matter. The White House and State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
A spokesperson for Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar did not respond to a request for comment on whether Saar had discussed the move with his US counterpart Marco Rubio during his visit to Washington last week.
Netanyahu’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on whether the prime minister supports annexation and if so, where.
A past pledge by Netanyahu to annex Jewish settlements and the Jordan Valley was scrapped in 2020 in favor of normalizing ties with the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain in the Abraham Accords brokered by Trump in his first term in office.
The office of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The United States said on Friday it would not allow Abbas to travel to New York for the United Nations gathering of world leaders, where several US allies are set to recognize Palestine as a state.
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Israel Pounds Gaza City Suburbs, Netanyahu to Convene Security Cabinet
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks to the press on Capitol Hill, Washington, DC, July 8, 2025. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein
Israeli forces pounded the suburbs of Gaza City overnight from the air and ground, destroying homes and driving more families out of the area as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s security cabinet was set on Sunday to discuss a plan to seize the city.
Residents of Sheikh Radwan, one of the largest neighborhoods of Gaza City, said the territory had been under Israeli tank shelling and airstrikes throughout Saturday and on Sunday, forcing families to seek shelter in the western parts of the city.
The Israeli military has gradually escalated its operations around Gaza City over the past three weeks, and on Friday it ended temporary pauses in the area that had allowed for aid deliveries, designating it a “dangerous combat zone.”
“They are crawling into the heart of the city where hundreds of thousands are sheltering, from the east, north, and south, while bombing those areas from the air and ground to scare people to leave,” said Rezik Salah, a father of two, from Sheikh Radwan.
An Israeli official said Netanyahu’s security cabinet will convene on Sunday evening to discuss the next stages of the planned offensive to seize Gaza City, which he has described as Hamas’ last bastion.
A full-scale offensive is not expected to start for weeks. Israel says it wants to evacuate the civilian population before moving more ground forces in.
HAMAS SPOKESPERSON TARGETED
Netanyahu confirmed on Sunday that Israeli forces had targeted Abu Ubaida, the spokesperson of Hamas’ armed wing. Defense Minister Israel Katz said that Abu Ubaida was killed. Two Hamas officials contacted by Reuters did not respond to requests for comment.
Gaza health authorities said 15 people, including five children, were killed in the attack on a residential building in the heart of Gaza City.
Abu Ubaida, also known as Hozayfa Al-Khalout, is a well-known figure to Palestinians and Israelis alike, close to Hamas’ top military leaders and in charge of delivering the group’s messages, often via video, for around two decades, delivering statements while wearing a red keffiyeh that concealed his face.
The US targeted him with sanctions in April 2024, accusing him of leading the “cyber influence department” of al-Qassam Brigades.
In his last statement on Friday, he warned that the planned Israeli offensive on Gaza City would endanger the hostages.
On Saturday, Red Cross head Mirjana Spoljaric said an evacuation from the city would provoke a massive population displacement that no other area in the enclave is equipped to absorb, with shortages of food, shelter and medical supplies.
“People who have relatives in the south left to stay with them. Others, including myself, didn’t find a space as Deir Al-Balah and Mawasi are overcrowded,” said Ghada, a mother of five from the city’s Sabra neighborhood.
Around half of the enclave’s more than 2 million people are presently in Gaza City. Several thousand were estimated to have left the city for central and southern areas of the enclave.
Israel’s military has warned its political leaders that the offensive is endangering hostages still being held by Hamas in Gaza. Protests in Israel calling for an end to the war and the release of the hostages have intensified in the past few weeks.