Iran and Sweden have actually finished a detainee swap, according to the federal government of Oman, which moderated the procedure.
People from both nations were flown to Muscat, the capital of the little state on the Persian Gulf, on Saturday.
Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson verified that 2 Swedish residents were on their method home.
According to info from Tehran, Hamid N., who had actually been sentenced to life in jail in Sweden for mass executions of political detainees in Iran at the end of the 1980s, was launched. The Iranian, 63, was sentenced in Stockholm in July 2022.
There was no verification of this from Stockholm. Kristersson simply stated that Iran had actually made the 2 Swedes “a pawn in a negative negotiating video game with the goal of launching the Iranian resident Hamid N.” from Swedish custody.
EU worker Johan Floderus and Said Asisi, who had actually been sentenced to 5 years in jail in Iran, were launched by Tehran, Kristersson stated. A minimum of another Swedish resident, the doctor Ahmad Resa Jalali, is still in an Iranian jail.
EU Foreign Affairs Agent Josep Borrell invited their release on X on Saturday.
“We rejoice at the news of the freedom of EU associate & resident Johan Floderus and his compatriot Saeed Azizi. We thank Swedish & Omani authorities,” the EU’s leading diplomat stated.
“Other EU residents are still arbitrarily apprehended in Iran. We’ll continue to work for their liberty together w/ EU MS included,” he included, describing member states. Borrell the Swedish and Omani authorities.
Detainee exchange without delay slammed
Mariam Claren, child of the German-Iranian Nahid Taghavi, who was put behind bars in Iran’s well-known Ewin jail, revealed her shock on the X platform.
“Let me be clear,” she composed, “I enjoy for the released captives and their households. However what message did the EU sent out to Tehran? More individuals will be hijacked, captives who were left may be carried out. And crucial: what a slap in the face of the households of Nouri‘s victims.”
Oman has actually gone far for itself as the “Switzerland of the Middle East” and endeavours to support political disputes in the area as a neutral gamer. The nation has actually moderated in between Iran and Saudi Arabia, for instance, and in talks in between the West and Iran over the latter’s nuclear program.
Relations in between Sweden and Iran had actually just recently cooled significantly due to the diplomatic cases. In Might in 2015, Tehran carried out a Swedish-Iranian dissident who had actually been implicated of terrorist activities. Critics had actually consistently implicated Iran of attempting to totally free Hamid N. by locking up Swedish residents.
European Union defence ministers fulfilling in Brussels on Tuesday were not able to reach an agreement on whether Ukraine ought to be permitted to utilize the weapons they provide to strike targets on Russian area.
EU nations had actually currently accepted jointly offer military help to Ukraine. However while some member states are providing arms to Kiev with very little constraints, others do so on the condition that they’ll be utilized within Ukrainian area.
However the Ukrainian federal government states its forces require to be able to strike targets inside Russia, since Russia is releasing attacks from over the border.
EU foreign affairs primary Josep Borrell stated in an interview after the conference that making use of self-defensive strikes versus military targets in Russian area “is a genuine action under worldwide law when it is being utilized in a proportional way.”
“However it’s likewise clear that it is a choice for each private member state,” he included.
“No one can avoid a member state to offer arms to Ukraine and let the Ukrainians utilize these arms to target military goals inside the Russian area,” Borrell stated. Likewise, “We cannot require them to do it.”
Somewhere else, Macron spoke up in favour of permitting Ukraine to utilize Western weapons to assault Russian positions on Russian area.
“We believe that we ought to enable them to neutralise the military websites from which the rockets are fired and generally the military websites from which Ukraine is assaulted,” Macron stated after talks with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz near Berlin.
“We ought to not enable other targets in Russia to be struck, civilian capabilities obviously, or other military targets,” he included.
Scholz stated Ukraine had every alternative under worldwide law for what it was doing. “We need to state this clearly: it is under attack and can safeguard itself.”
On The Other Hand Russian President Vladimir Putin has actually threatened Europe with “major repercussions” if Ukraine is permitted to fire long-range accuracy weapons provided by the West at Russian area.
“These NATO agents, particularly in Europe and particularly in the little nations, ought to understand what they are having fun with,” Putin stated in the Uzbek capital Tashkent on Tuesday at the end of a state see.
Putin, who began the war on Ukraine more than 2 years back, implicated the West of continuing escalation and stated NATO experts, not Ukrainians, were managing the modern-day weapons systems.
According to Putin, such permission by Western states would total up to a direct conflict in between Russia and the West, and he made reference of Russia’s tactical nuclear weapons.
EU ministers likewise stay divided over whether military trainers from the EU ought to be permitted to offer training on Ukrainian area, or whether Ukrainian conscripts ought to be given the EU for training.
Some fear that putting “boots on the ground” in Ukraine would intensify their participation in the war and increase the danger of direct dispute in between Russia and the West.
“Some member states think that the benefit of training individuals on the situation of the war, preventing individuals going back and forth has benefits,” Borrell stated. “Others think that at the end, it’s sending out fitness instructors, and the fitness instructors are military.”
Nevertheless, the defence ministers had the ability to concur broad top priorities for Europe’s defence at the conference on Tuesday.
Foremost amongst them was “EU’s steadfast assistance to Ukraine.” An EU news release stated: “The EU will utilize all tools at its disposal.”
Amongst these tools is an off-budget fund called the European Peace Center, under which the EU has actually promised €5 billion ($5.4 billion) worth of military help to Ukraine. Nevertheless, payments are being held up by Hungary. Each EU member state has a veto over the legislation needed to start payments.
The Dutch federal government revealed on Tuesday that it will lead an effort amongst some European nations to provide a Patriot air defence rocket system to Ukraine.
“Ukraine, obviously, is still under attack. Airstrikes continue,” stated Dutch Defence Minister Kajsa Ollongren as she got to the defence ministers’ conference. “Patriot systems are limited in Europe and NATO, however we are now taking an advance, so we will provide parts of Patriot systems,” she stated.
A news release from the Dutch Ministry of Defence stated “the Netherlands has actually recognized which nations might use extra Patriot parts and munitions” in order to provide a total system to Ukraine. It does not point out which nations are included.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg stated air defence is Ukraine’s “most immediate requirement.” He stated EU nations are “stepping up the shipment of ammo, air defence systems, and in specific, the most sophisticated ones, the Patriot systems.” Stoltenberg participated in the defence ministers’ conference on Tuesday.
Likewise on the defence ministers’ top priority list is reinforcing the EU’s commercial capability to produce weaponries and protective innovations. The statement “worries the essential requirement to enhance access to public and personal financing” for the European defence market.
In March, the European Commission proposed a €1.5 billion strategy to enhance Europe’s weaponries market, in order that it may be much better geared up to safeguard itself and to equip Ukraine.
A basic view of the European Defence Company Steering Board conference ahead of the EU defence ministers conference. Francois Lenoir/European Council/dpa
Josep Borrell, EU High Agent for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, talks to the media upon his arrival to participate in the EU defence ministers conference. Francois Lenoir/European Council/dpa
Defence Ministers of EU states take their seats throughout a conference. European Union defence ministers will fulfill in Brussels on Tuesday to go over military help to Ukraine, along with efforts to enhance Europe’s defence market. Francois Lenoir/EU Council/dpa
European Union defence ministers will satisfy in Brussels on Tuesday to talk about military help to Ukraine, along with efforts to reinforce Europe’s defence market.
The EU has actually promised €5 billion ($5.4 billion) in military help to Ukraine through an off-budget fund called the European Peace Center. However payments are being held up by Hungary. Each EU member state has a veto.
“This hold-up can be determined in regards to human lives,” EU diplomacy chief Josep Borrell stated on Monday, after a conference of EU foreign ministers. “We have actually concurred that the Hungarian contribution to the European Peace center will not be utilized to provide military assistance to Ukraine.”
Ministers will talk about the battleground scenario in Ukraine. Ukrainian Defence Minister Rustem Umerov and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg will likewise take part in the conversations.
Likewise on the program is a €1.5 billion strategy set out by the European Commission in March to reinforce EU’s weaponries market, in order that it may be much better geared up to safeguard itself and to equip Ukraine.
EU foreign ministers settled on Monday to hold a conference of the EU-Israel Association Council to evaluate Israel’s compliance with the association contract’s human rights responsibilities.
EU diplomacy chief Josep Borrell revealed the relocation in Brussels as he stepped up pressure on Israel to adhere to a judgment from the International Court of Justice to stop an offensive in the southern Gaza city of Rafah.
Contrary to following the ICJ judgment, Israel has actually performed “a boost on the military activities, a boost in the battle and boost on the casualties to the civilian individuals,” Borrell stated.
The EU diplomacy chief stated EU foreign ministers asked him “to propose more concrete steps” to guarantee Israel’s compliance with the ICJ judgment.
The European Union has actually constantly condemned the October 7 Hamas horror attacks on Israel that eliminated over 1,200 individuals and 250 individuals hijacked however criticism of Israel’s conduct in Gaza has actually been growing.
An Israeli airstrike that struck camping tents real estate displaced individuals near Rafah, apparently eliminating 45 individuals, triggered outrage on Monday. Irish Foreign Minister Micheál Martin condemned the attack as “barbaric.”
“Frightened by news coming out of #Rafah on Israeli strikes eliminating lots of displaced individuals, consisting of little kids. I condemn this in the greatest terms,” Borrell stated on X, previously Twitter.
EU foreign ministers likewise held casual talks with their equivalents from Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar, plus the secretary-general of the League of Arab States.
After the conference, Borrell stated that foreign ministers from the Arab states proposed holding a global conference to carry out a two-state service to the Israel-Hamas dispute.
Borrell stated the bloc’s equivalents from the Middle East and the Gulf were challenging to EU member specifies to reveal their useful dedication to ending the battling.
The European Union’s leading diplomat, Josep Borrell, restated require a ceasefire in Gaza and the release of Israeli captives abducted by Hamas, following a conference with the Palestinian Authority’s brand-new prime minister in Brussels on Sunday.
“We need to do whatever in our power to reach an instant end of the hostilities, to attain the instant release of all captives, to reduce the humanitarian disaster unfolding in Gaza,” stated Borrell at an interview.
Borrell was speaking at European Commission head office along with Mohammad Mustafa, the just recently selected prime minister of the Palestinian Authority, which governs in the West Bank, and Norwegian Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide.
The 3 fulfilled donors to the Palestinian Authority in Brussels on Sunday to talk about the newly-formed federal government in the West Bank, led by Mustafa.
Borrell likewise stated accusations that Israel is devoting “genocide” ought to be examined.
Keeping in mind an ruling by the United Nations’ International Court of Justice (ICJ) on Friday, which bought Israel to stop its offensive in the Gazan city of Rafah, Borrell stated: “This essential global Court of Justice decision likewise orders Israel to guarantee access to any United Nations mandate examining the accusations of genocide.”
While he highlighted that he’s just calling them “accusations”, Borrell included, “they need to be examined according with the judgment of the ICJ.”
Norway – which is not a member of the EU – revealed on Wednesday that it will acknowledge the state of Palestine. The EU itself cannot do the exact same unless all of its 27 member states do so initially.
Hamas took control of Gaza in 2007 after elections the previous year caused battling in between Hamas and Fatah, which manages the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank.
European Union diplomacy chief Josep Borrell speak throughout an interview WITH Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammed Mustafa after the Ministerial International Partners Fulfilling on Palestine. Lukasz Kobus/European Commission/dpa
BRUSSELS (AP) — European Union diplomacy chief Josep Borrell on Friday called the elimination of Estonian buoys by Russian border guards on a river separating the Baltic nation from Russia “undesirable,” and required a description from Moscow and the instant return of the orange drifting gadgets.
Early Thursday, Estonian border guards saw that their Russian equivalent had actually eliminated 25 of the 50 buoys that Estonia had actually set up on the Narva River to avoid boats from inadvertently crossing the border.
Borrell stated the occurrence “becomes part of a wider pattern of intriguing habits and hybrid actions by Russia.”
Estonia likewise called it “undesirable,” however stated its action “stays calm and clear-eyed.”
“We treat this as an intriguing border occurrence,” the Foreign Ministry in Tallinn stated Thursday.
For years, Estonia and Russia have actually set up buoys on the Narva River, with the towns of Narva on the Estonian side and Ivangorod on the Russian bank, mostly in shared contract.
Every year, the marking of the shipping paths was reconsidered due to the fact that “the riverbed modifications in time,” stated Eerik Purgel, the regional Estonian Border Guard head. On Might 13, the very first 50 buoys were set up. Nevertheless 25 of them were eliminated by their Russian equivalents early in the early morning 10 days later on, he included.
However in 2023, “Russia does not concur with Estonia’s positions concerning the area of the buoys,” Purgel stated.
“We chose to launch the drifting marks into the water for the summertime season according to a 2022 contract, due to the fact that they are essential to prevent navigational mistakes, so that our anglers and other enthusiasts do not inadvertently roam into Russian waters,” he stated.
Estonia’s Foreign Ministry stated the action “fits well within the wider pattern of Russia’s intriguing habits,” and drew parallels to the border mapping events in the Baltic Sea previously today. According to media reports, Moscow might modify the borders of its territorial waters in the area.
The draft proposition was released on a main Russian federal government site for draft legislation however vanished hours after it was published on Wednesday. It wasn’t instantly clear why.
Russian media stated the Defense Ministry in Moscow had actually recommended upgrading the collaborates utilized to determine the strip of territorial waters off its mainland coast which of its islands in the Baltic Sea. The existing collaborates were authorized in 1985, the ministry states, including that they were “based upon small nautical navigation maps” and don’t represent the “contemporary geographical circumstance.”
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov later on stated there was “absolutely nothing political” in the Defense Ministry’s proposition, and Russian news companies stated Moscow did not plan to modify the border or the width of its territorial waters.
Given that Russia’s major intrusion of Ukraine in early 2022, Finland and Sweden have actually signed up with NATO, implying that the Baltic Sea — Russia’s maritime point of access to the city of St. Petersburg and its Kaliningrad enclave — is now practically surrounded by members of the military alliance.
Following a statement by Norway, Ireland and Spain that they prepare to acknowledge Palestine as an independent state, EU diplomacy chief Josep Borrell continues to speak up in favour of a two-state service in the Middle East.
“I bear in mind these days’s statement by 2 EU Member States -Ireland and Spain – and by Norway on the acknowledgment of the State of Palestine,” he composed in a post on the social networks platform X.
“Within the structure of the Common Foreign and Security Policy, I will non-stop deal with all Member States to promote a typical EU position based upon a 2-state service,” he included.
A two-state service describes an independent Palestinian state that exists in harmony side by side with Israel. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu opposes a two-state service, as does the Palestinian Islamist Hamas motion.
(Bloomberg) — Spain’s socialist federal government required an apology from Argentine President Javier Milei, stating the libertarian leader’s remarks at a reactionary rally in Madrid had severely broken relations.
A Lot Of Check Out from Bloomberg
Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares informed press reporters Sunday that Spain was remembering its ambassador from Buenos Aires after Milei implicated the prime minister’s other half of corruption and decried socialism as “cursed and carcinogenic.”
The Argentine leader was provided the regard and deference due a foreign president in the Spanish capital, consisting of public resources needed to guarantee his security, Albares stated. “To this hospitality and great faith, he reacted with a frontal attack on our democracy, on our organizations and on Spain.”
Calling non-interference in a nation’s internal affairs an “solid” tenet of global relations, Albares stated “it’s inappropriate that a sitting president, on a see to Spain, insults Spain and the head of the Spanish federal government.”
Milei got here in Spain on Friday after weeks of trading barbs with Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez. The Spanish leader last month took a short break from public view after a judge opened a case declaring influence-peddling versus his other half Begona Gomez.
Rather of checking out Sanchez or King Felipe, the Argentine president fulfilled Saturday with Sanchez’s fiercest critic in parliament, Santiago Abascal, and participated in an event Sunday hosted by Abascal’s anti-immigrant Vox Celebration.
“With his behaviour, Milei has actually brought the relationship in between Spain and Argentina to its most major state in current history,” Albares stated.
The Spanish foreign minister stated almost all celebrations in Spain’s parliament supported his stand versus Milei — other than for the conservative Individuals’s Celebration and Vox.
Albares included that he had actually talked to European Union diplomacy chief Josep Borrell, who ensured him that an insult to the federal government of a member nation would be viewed as an insult to Europe as a whole.
“Attacks versus relative of politicians have no location in our culture,” Borrell stated in the future social networks platform X. “We condemn and decline them, specifically when originating from partners.”
Georgia’s parliament has passed a law that critics see as a threat to media freedom and the country’s aspirations to join the European Union. Lawmakers defied weeks of large demonstrations in the capital that also featured anger at neighboring Russia.
Here is a look at the law and the protests against it:
WHAT DOES THE LAW DO?
The law would require media, nongovernmental organizations and other nonprofits to register as “pursuing the interests of a foreign power” if they receive more than 20% of funding from abroad.
The law is nearly identical to the one that the governing Georgian Dream party was pressured to withdraw last year after similar protests. This version passed its third and final reading in parliament on Tuesday.
The governing party says the law is necessary to stem what it deems as harmful foreign influence over Georgia’s political scene and prevent unidentified foreign actors from trying to destabilize it.
The opposition denounces it as “the Russian law” because Moscow uses similar legislation to stigmatize independent news media and organizations critical of the Kremlin. Opposition lawmakers have accused the governing party of trying to drag Georgia into Russia’s sphere of influence.
The law will be sent to the president before it can go into effect. President Salome Zourabichvili, who is increasingly at odds with the governing party, has vowed to veto the law, but Georgian Dream has a majority sufficient to override a veto.
HOW ARE RUSSIA-GEORGIA TIES?
Russia-Georgia relations have been strained and turbulent since the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union and Georgia’s departure from its role as a Soviet republic.
In 2008, Russia fought a brief war with Georgia, which had made a botched attempt to regain control over the breakaway province of South Ossetia. Moscow then recognized South Ossetia and another separatist province, Abkhazia, as independent states and strengthened its military presence there. Most of the world considers both regions to be parts of Georgia.
Tbilisi cut diplomatic ties with Moscow, and the regions’ status remains a key irritant even as Russia-Georgia relations have improved in recent years.
The opposition United National Movement accuses Georgian Dream, which was founded by Bidzina Ivanishvili, a former prime minister and billionaire who made his fortune in Russia, of serving Moscow’s interests — an accusation the governing party denies.
WHAT IS THE EU’S POSITION?
EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell described the parliament’s decision as “a very concerning development” and warned that “final adoption of this legislation would negatively impact Georgia’s progress on its EU path.” Borrell earlier said the law was “not in line with EU core norms and values” and would limit the ability of media and civil society to operate freely.
European Council President Charles Michel said after the law was passed that “if they want to join the EU, they have to respect the fundamental principles of the rule of law and the democratic principles.”
Iranian Foreign Minister Hussein Amirabdollahian has condemned planned sanctions against his country over the major drone and missile attack on Israel earlier this month as “unlawful” and “regrettable.”
Iran had exercised its right to self-defence with the attack, Amirabdollahian wrote on X, formerly Twitter, on Tuesday. He called for sanctions to be imposed against Israel.
At a meeting in Luxembourg on Monday, the foreign ministers of the 27 EU member states instructed EU chief diplomat Josep Borrell to submit concrete proposals for sanctions.
These should make it possible to impose further trade restrictions on Iran in order to make it more difficult for the country to build and develop drones and missiles.
There are also plans to impose sanctions on individuals, organizations and companies involved in the production of drones and missiles and their delivery to Iran’s allies in the Middle East.
The moves are in response to Iran’s unprecedented direct missile attack on Israel 10 days ago. It followed a suspected Israeli attack on the Iranian embassy in the Syrian capital Damascus at the beginning of the month.
In the latter incident, two generals and five other members of the powerful Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) were among those killed.
Israel carried out a retaliatory strike in the province of Isfahan on Friday, reportedly hitting an air base.
The European Union is planning new sanctions on Iran following Tehran’s recent missile and drone attacks on Israel, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said on Tuesday in Brussels.
“The region is at the edge of an abyss,” Borrell warned, describing the tense situation in the Middle East. “We have to move away from it,” he added.
EU foreign ministers discussed the Iranian attack in a videocall, specially convened after Iran directly attacked Israel on Saturday, for the first time in the history of the Islamic Republic.
Iran said it was retaliation for the killing of high-ranking Iranian officers in Syria at the start of the month.
New punitive measures could be imposed through a sanctions regime set up after Iran began supporting the Russian war on Ukraine by supplying Moscow with drones, Borrell said.
The measures banned the export of components used for the construction and production of unmanned aerial vehicles to Iran. The bloc’s top diplomat said those sanctions could be expanded to make it harder for Iran to produce missiles.
Borrell said there are also plans to target the supply of drones and missiles to Iranian proxies in the Middle East. Borrell said he has instructed EU officials to begin the “necessary work.”
Some EU member states have called to sanction the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) but Borrell said that the elite unit of the Iranian armed forces would first have to be prosecuted by a national authority for terrorist activities under EU law. However, this has not yet been the case.
The video conference also discussed how the EU can contribute to de-escalation in the region. EU foreign ministers called “on all actors” to show restraint in the region, Borrell said.
Condemning the Iranian attack, Borrell said that EU foreign ministers “the commitment of the European Union to Israel’s security.”
EU foreign ministers also highlighted their previous calls for an immediate ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, Borrell said, while calling for the release of all hostages taken by Hamas after the October 7 attacks and for humanitarian access to the civilian population be unhindered
While the fighting in Gaza continues “there will be no regional stability,” Borrell said, stressing that the conflict must be taken into consideration when attempting to keep peace in the Middle East.
BRUSSELS (Reuters) -The European Union will prepare to expand its sanctions on Iran in response to Tehran’s attack on Israel, EU top diplomat Josep Borrell said on Tuesday after an emergency video conference of the bloc’s foreign ministers.
Borrell cited U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in declaring that the Middle East was “at the edge of an abyss” following Iran’s missile and drone attack at the weekend.
“Today, ministers took a strong stance, asking all actors in the region to move away from the abyss, in order not to fall into it,” he told reporters after the meeting, called to discuss the repercussions of the Iranian attack.
Borrell, the EU’s high representative for foreign policy, warned the Middle East would be in “full war” if every development in the current crisis is followed by an escalation.
Borrell said several EU members proposed expanding a sanctions regime that seeks to curb the supply of Iranian drones to Russia to include the provision of missiles and cover deliveries to Iranian proxies in the Middle East.
Germany, France and several other EU members have publicly backed such a proposal.
Borrell said he supported the proposal and diplomats would work on it in the coming days so ministers could discuss it again at a meeting in Luxembourg on Monday.
He said some EU members also raised the prospect of sanctioning Iran’s dominant military force, the Revolutionary Guard Corps.
But Borrell reiterated the EU’s position that the corps could only be designated as a terrorist organisation if a national authority in the EU found that the group had been involved in terrorist activity.
He said the EU was not aware of any such case but he would ask the EU’s diplomatic service to examine the matter again.
Borrell said all the ministers from the 27-nation EU strongly condemned the Iranian attack and reaffirmed their commitment to Israel’s security.
But he also voiced strong criticism of Israel’s conduct of the war in Gaza, launched in response to the Hamas attack on Israel from the Palestinian enclave on Oct. 7 last year.
He said far too little aid was getting into Gaza to deal with a “catastrophic humanitarian situation” and questioned Israeli calls for Palestinians in the south of the enclave to move to the north.
“It’s impossible for any human being to live there. There is no water, there’s no electricity, there’s no sewerage. There’s no houses, there is no nothing. It’s like the moon,” he said.
“If they wanted to make Gaza a place where human life is not possible, in the north they managed to succeed.”
Israel has dismissed such accusations and Israeli officials have voiced irritation at Borrell’s repeated criticism of their conduct during the war.
Some EU member states have also voiced frustration at his criticism of Israel while others have given him strong backing.
(Reporting by Andrew Gray; Editing by Benoit Van Overstraeten and Daniel Wallis)
One year after a brutal war erupted between rival factions of Sudan’s security forces, France and Germany are leading an international donor conference in Paris on Monday to raise funds for urgently needed humanitarian aid.
French Foreign Minister Stéphane Séjourné, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock and EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell headline the event that will also feature aid groups working on the ground and representatives of Sudan’s neighbours.
A bloody power struggle is raging between the forces of Abdel Fattah al-Burha, an army general who is Sudan’s de facto ruler, and his former deputy Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, who leads the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).
The two generals seized power in a military coup in 2021, but later fell out over internationally-backed plans for Sudan’s transition to civilian rule. The RSF’s integration into the regular armed forces was an especially contentious issue.
Their violent pursuit for dominance over Sudan has triggered the largest refugee crisis in the world.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees estimates more than 8.6 million people have fled their homes to other parts of Sudan or to neighbouring countries; other estimates put the number at more than 9 million.
The artillery barrages, rocket fire and airstrikes have affected nearly every corner of the African nation, including the hard-hit capital Khartoum. There has been a dramatic deterioration in the humanitarian situation, with famine looming in several regions and severe shortages of medicines and other essential goods.
Amnesty International said last year it had documented war crimes committed by both sides, including mass civilian casualties in both deliberate and indiscriminate attacks and sexualized violence against women and girls.
The Paris meeting will begin with political consultations, at which more than 20 ministers are expected, in particular from Sudan’s neighbouring countries, as well as representatives of key international organizations.
The European Union condemned Iran’s direct aerial attack on Israel in the “strongest terms” on Sunday.
“This is an unprecedented escalation and a threat to regional security,” the bloc’s chief diplomat Josep Borrell said on behalf of the EU on Sunday. “We call on all parties to exercise utmost restraint.”
In this highly tense regional situation, further escalation can be in no one’s interest, Borrell said in a statement.
He also reaffirmed the European Union’s commitment to Israel’s security. “The EU remains firmly committed to contribute to de-escalation and security in the region and is in close contact with all sides to this end.”
He spoke to Iranian Foreign Minister Hussein Amirabdollahian to convey these messages and urge Iran not to escalate further, Borrell wrote on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, on Sunday afternoon.
He has called an extraordinary meeting of EU foreign ministers for Tuesday to address security in the region.
BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Union on Friday imposed sanctions on the Russian justice and prison officials responsible for imprisoning opposition leader Alexei Navalny before his death last month.
“Alexei Navalny’s slow killing by the Kremlin regime is a stark reminder of its utter disregard for human life,” EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said in a statement announcing the move.
Borrell said the sanctions, which target 33 officials and two prisons and involve asset freezes and travel bans, “demonstrate our determination to hold Russia’s political leadership and authorities to account for the continuing violation of the human rights in Russia.”
Navalny, the most persistent foe of President Vladimir Putin, was serving a 19-year sentence when he died. He had been behind bars since January 2021 after returning to Russia from Germany where he had been recovering from nerve-agent poisoning that he blamed on the Kremlin.
The cause of his Feb. 16 death has been described by officials only as due to natural causes.
The EU said that its measures would hit the IK-6 corrective colony and IK-3 maximum security corrective colony, including the official in charge Vadim Kalinin, where Navalny had been held before his death.
“Both colonies are known for exerting physical and psychological pressure, full isolation, torture and violence on prisoners. In both places Mr. Navalny suffered abuses, including through repeated solitary confinement in a punishment cell and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment, leading to the severe deterioration of his health,” it said.
Justice officials targeted by the EU measures include Andrey Suvorov, who last year sentenced Navalny to 19 years in a special regime colony, and Kirill Nikiforov, who rejected Navalny’s lawsuit against IK-6 to appeal his transfer to a punishment cell for 12 days. It’s unclear whether the officials traveled to or through EU countries or had significant assets in Europe.