Divided EU Weighs Action Against Israel Over Gaza War
The bloc's foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas has put forward 10 potential steps after Israel was found to have breached a cooperation deal between the two sides on human rights grounds.
The measures range from suspending the entire accord or curbing trade ties to sanctioning Israeli ministers, imposing an arms embargo and halting visa-free travel.
But despite growing anger over the devastation in Gaza, EU states remain divided over how to tackle Israel and diplomats say there appears to be no critical mass for any move.
"I was asked to give the inventory of the options that could be taken and it's up to the member states to discuss what do we do with these options," Kallas said Monday.
The tone of discussions will be shaped strongly by how Israel is implementing a promise to the EU to improve humanitarian access to Gaza.
Kallas said Thursday she had struck a deal with her Israeli counterpart, Gideon Saar, to open more entry points and allow in more food.
Gaza's two million residents are facing dire humanitarian conditions as Israel has severely limited aid during its devastating war with Palestinian militant group Hamas.
"We see some good signs of more trucks getting in," Kallas said Monday.
"But of course we know that this is not enough and we need to push more (so) that the implementation of what we have agreed also happens on the ground."
At a meeting of EU and neighbouring countries in Brussels on Monday, Jordanian foreign minister Ayman Safadi said the situation in Gaza remained "catastrophic".
Israel's Saar, speaking at the same meeting, sounded confident his country would avoid further EU action.
"I'm sure not any of them will be adopted by the EU member states," said the foreign minister. "There's no justification whatsoever."
While the EU appears unable for now to take any further moves against Israel, just getting to this stage has been a considerable step.
The bloc only agreed to review the cooperation deal after Israel relaunched its devastating operation in Gaza following the collapse of a ceasefire in March.
Until then deep divisions between countries backing Israel and those more favourable to the Palestinians had hamstrung any move.
The war was sparked by Hamas's October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, which led to 1,219 deaths, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.
Of the 251 people taken hostage by militants that day, 49 are still held in Gaza, including 27 the Israeli military says are dead.
Hamas-run Gaza's health ministry says that at least 58,386 Palestinians, most of them civilians, have been killed in Israel's retaliatory campaign. The UN considers those figures reliable.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Int'l Business Times
3 hours ago
- Int'l Business Times
Former Nigerian President Buhari Buried At Family Compound
Former Nigerian president Muhammadu Buhari was buried at his home in northwestern Katsina state Tuesday, with the multiple heads of state in attendance guarded by a heavy security detail. Thousands of Nigerians gathered for public prayers in the town of Daura before the former leader was laid to rest in private at his family compound, which had been bustling with mourners paying their respects since his death over the weekend. Buhari, who died at the age of 82 in a London clinic on Sunday, ruled Nigeria first as a military strongman in the 1980s and then later as a self-described "converted democrat", serving two terms as president from 2015 to 2023. Nigerian President Bola Tinubu, Africa's wealthiest billionaire Aliko Dangote, the president of Guinea-Bissau and prime minister of Niger, as well as former Niger president Mahamadou Issoufou were all in attendance, local media reported. The presence of Niger's Prime Minister Ali Lamine Zeine came after his country and Nigeria saw diplomatic relations deteriorate since a 2023 coup overthrew Niamey's civilian leaders. As Buhari's body made its way from England to Daura, less than 20 kilometres (about 10 miles) from the Niger border, a massive security presence of police, soldiers and plainclothes officers was deployed in the usually sleepy town. Nigeria, particularly in the north, has for years suffered attacks from insurgent jihadists and armed criminal gangs. Although he was elected on a mandate for change, Buhari's time in office failed to put an end to the violence. He made history in 2015 as the first opposition candidate to defeat an incumbent leader at the ballot box. But Buhari was accused of squandering both political opportunity and popular goodwill in his time at the helm. Economic woes further dogged the oil giant during his tenure, while poverty, corruption and inequality remain entrenched. He retained a reputation for personal austerity, however -- a rarity in cash-soaked Nigerian politics. "Baba will be remembered for his honesty," mourner Kabir Ibrahim told AFP. Images broadcast from inside the family compound showed a military band playing a final send-off for Buhari, whose remains were draped in the green-and-white Nigerian flag, as soldiers saluted and mourners dressed in colourful kaftans bowed their heads. Young men climbed trees overlooking the courtyard to catch a glimpse of the final rites. The flag was removed and his body, draped in white, was buried. Security ahead of the internment was so tight that Buhari's family members found themselves locked out of the family compound Tuesday afternoon, including Fatima Isah, who said she was the ex-president's 78-year-old niece. "Buhari was my provider, but he is no more. To add to my torment, they have refused me entry," said Isah, in between sobs. Muttaqa Mahmud Bebeji, a civil servant, travelled 150 kilometres from the city of Kano to pay his respects among the "sea of the people," calling Buhari "irreplaceable." Despite harsh criticisms of Buhari's presidency, Daura welcomed him home. "Buhari was an upright man who did his best for Nigeria, but he was human and prone to shortcomings," Nasiru Abdullahi, a 35-year-old tyre mechanic, told AFP on the eve of the funeral.
DW
3 hours ago
- DW
EU backs Trump Ukraine U-Turn but wants US to 'share burden' – DW – 07/15/2025
The European bloc welcomed a shift in US rhetoric on Ukraine but pressed Washington to chip in. The EU, however, failed to agree on a new round of sanctions on Russia. The European Union's foreign affairs chief may be having something of an "I told you so" moment as US President Donald Trump reverses his past praise of Vladimir Putin and vows to ramp up pressure on Moscow. "We see from the United States that they have also realized that Russia does not really want peace," Kaja Kallas told reporters in Brussels on Tuesday. The former Estonian prime minister made a name for herself as one of Ukraine's staunchest political backers, and warned at this week's EU talks that Russia's bombing campaign had "reached record levels." Kallas and many of her EU counterparts welcomed Washington's shift in rhetoric as they filed into a meeting. "What we experienced yesterday with the new messages from Trump was very, very important," Denmark's Lars Lokke Rasmussen said. But some of the EU's top brass also had notes for the US on its latest announcements, including Washington's threat to slap 100% secondary tariffs on Russia and countries that trade with it unless a peace deal with Ukraine is reached by early September. "The 50 days that Mr. Trump has announced is rather long," Dutch foreign minister Caspar Veldkamp said on the sidelines of Tuesday's talks. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video Trump also made headlines Monday with an announcement that he'd be greenlighting sales of Patriot air defense systems and other arms to European countries to send on to Ukraine, just two weeks after Washington paused some arms shipments to Kyiv. The new plan should speed up and expand deliveries of US arms which Ukraine says it needs as it faces increased Russian aerial attacks. Some European countries have already been buying and sending US-made weapons to Kyiv, though the latest scheme could offer more certainty on the permissions needed to swiftly transfer the arms. A US commitment to sell replacements for American-made weapons sent to Ukraine could also encourage European states to ship more of their own military supplies. NATO chief Mark Rutte said the deal would "work through NATO systems" and that European countries including Germany, Finland, Denmark, Sweden and the Netherlands were all interested in taking part. But the US is yet to disclose more details of its new scheme and DW understands the technicalities of exactly how it will work are still being discussed. Trump was, however, quick to cast the new deal as a lucrative business opportunity for the US, stressing Europe would foot the bill. And that seems to be raising some eyebrows among his counterparts across the Atlantic. The EU's Kallas told reporters after Tuesday's meeting that she would like to see Europe and the US "share the burden" of arming Ukraine. "If we pay for these weapons, it's our support — so it's European support — and we are doing as much as we can to help Ukraine. And therefore the call is that everybody would do the same," she said. "If you promise to give the weapons then say that somebody else is going to pay for it, it's not really given by you, is it?" Kallas added. Denmark's Rasmussen made a similarly veiled allusion. "We are providing a lot of funding for Ukraine to buy whatever weapons and ammunition they need … But I mean, I would very much like to see all our partners actually also contributing if we want this war to stop," he said. While the US ranks as Ukraine's single largest donor since its full-scale invasion by Russia, the European Union as a whole has spent roughly the same amount as Washington over the same period, according to data from the Kiel Institute cited by Radio Free Europe. The EU outspends the US when the cost of hosting and assisting Ukrainian refugees is factored in. EU states may be breathing a sigh of relief after the US policy shift, but policy analyst Torrey Taussig says it's too soon to judge whether Trump's stance has changed for good. "There has been a seesaw approach to this relationship throughout the last several months of this administration, and I wouldn't be surprised if this relationship, the US-Ukrainian relationship, still has more turns that it can take," the former US government official turned Atlantic Council fellow told DW. "I'm very reluctant to call this a strategic shift in the US-Ukrainian relationship," she added, though added that the two sides' ties now seem far more "positive." To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video With European countries racing to boost their own defenses amid pressure from the US and a broader rethink of the EU's geopolitical fragility, governments have been debating how much of a planned military spending splurge should go to US weapons. Arms purchases, especially those involving large weapons systems, tend to lock the buyer into a years-long relationship with the seller, from production to delivery to future repairs. Experts say ending Europe's dependency on the American-made weapons, logistics and intelligence capacities it lacks could take at least a decade — and with US foreign policy proving unpredictable, that leaves some worried. EU heavyweight France has pushed for more European-only purchases, frustrating some other states which argued this only serves to slow down the process of getting weapons into European and Ukrainian hands. The latest US-led plan may be seen by some as a blow to France's efforts, with the potential for more European money to flow toward US arms manufacturers. As Europe nudges the US to do more to support Ukraine and punish Russia, the bloc's own efforts are faltering. Kallas said she was "really sad" that ministers failed to adopt an 18th round of EU sanctions on Moscow on Tuesday due to a holdout by Slovakia. The landlocked central European state has been protesting planned EU laws to ban all sales of Russian gas, and Prime Minister Roberto Fico said in an online post on Tuesday that Slovakia had asked the EU to postpone the vote on sanctions while his government mulled its response to an exchange with the EU's executive aimed at ending the stalemate. Kallas said she was "optimistic" an agreement could be struck among EU states in the coming days.
Int'l Business Times
3 hours ago
- Int'l Business Times
In Backing Brazil's Bolsonaro, Trump May Be Helping Lula
US President Donald Trump's backing for a far-right Brazilian ally could inadvertently boost leftist President Luis Inacio Lula da Silva's flagging political fortunes, analysts say. Brazilians on both sides of the political aisle have been angered by a threatened 50 percent tariff on exports to the US -- a penalty for what Trump calls a "witch hunt" against ex-president Jair Bolsonaro. Bolsonaro is on trial for allegedly plotting a coup against Lula, who narrowly beat him in a bitter 2022 election that deeply divided voters in the South American powerhouse. Lula's popularity has tanked amid persistent inflation, anger over an alleged social security scam to defraud retirees, and a proposal to raise tax on financial transactions. But he seems to have been bolstered by Washington's threats: rallying Brazilians against a common meddlesome enemy. "Trump gave Lula a great gift," analyst Andre Cesar of the HOLD marketing consultancy told AFP. Rejecting US "interference," Lula's administration has launched a patriotic campaign under the slogan: "Brazil ('Brasil' in Portuguese) is written with an S for Sovereignty." The former trade unionist has been sporting a baseball cap with the words "Brazil belongs to Brazilians," and made fun of Trump at a recent event by offering to send him a local fruit as a treatment against "bad mood" and "tariff fights." Lula is also strategizing with leaders of industry and agribusiness who stand to lose much in a tariff war, but are traditionally allies in Bolsonaro's conservative "Bibles, bullets and beef" coalition. "Lula taxes the rich, Bolsonaro taxes Brazilians," rings another slogan adopted by the administration in Brasilia. The president's entourage has been relishing an apparent political boon from the threatened tariff they nevertheless hope will never come to pass. "Bolsonarismo wants to hold Brazil hostage to save Bolsonaro. It's great" for the left, a member of Lula's team told AFP on condition of anonymity, referring to the movement named after the ex-president's supporters. "Now we need to make the most of it until next year," when Brazil goes to the polls to elect a president for the next four years. Lula, 79, has not said whether he will seek reelection. Bolsonaro, for his part, has been ruled ineligible to hold office by a court that found him guilty of spreading misinformation about Brazil's electoral system. On the back foot, few in Brazil's political right welcomed the tariff move despite having agitated for US measures against Lula's administration and the courts for their "persecution" of Bolsonaro. Among the rare defenders was congressman Eduardo Bolsonaro -- the former president's son -- who wrote: "Thank you President Trump. Make Brazil Free Again," in an all-caps social media post after the US president's own writing style. Bolsonaro himself was more guarded in his response, and at pains to stress he was "not happy" about the tariff pain Brazilian producers would suffer. Sao Paulo governor Tarcisio de Freitas -- a possible 2026 right-wing presidential candidate -- also toned down his usual antagonism towards Lula to call for "joint efforts" against US tariffs that would inflict deep pain on Brazil's richest state and its lucrative aerospace industry. Geraldo Monteiro, a political science professor at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, said Trump's threats "may have shifted the game" by "further isolating the far-right" in Brazil. "There was an unexpected convergence of interests between Lula's government and the business class, in addition to a convergence of the political class to align with Lula," he told AFP. A sign branding Donald Trump and Jair Bolsonaro 'Enemies of the people' at a protest in Sao Paulo AFP This handout picture from the Brazilian presidency shows Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva wearing a cap with the words: 'Brazil belongs to Brazilians' AFP
