At Foreign Affairs Council, EU foreign ministers set to discuss Iran’s destabilizing role, before holding the EU-Israel Association Council

After the Foreign Affairs Council on Monday (24 February), the EU and Israel held their 13th Association Council. Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar travelled to Brussels to co-chair the Council alongside EU Hight Representative for foreign affairs and security policy, Kaja Kallas, and in the presence of Dubravka Šuica, European Commissioner for the Mediterranean, and representatives of EU member states. Sa’ar declared: “Strong Israel-EU relations serve the interests of both sides. I will continue working to strengthen them.”

The 27 EU Foreign Ministers were set to dicuss Iran’s destabilizing role in the Middle East, among other Middle East topics, during a meeting of the Foreign Affairs Council in Brussels on Monday which will be followed in the afternoon by the first meeting in years of the EU-Israel Association Council in the presence of Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar.

According to a senior EU official, who briefed reporters ahead of the Council,  this session on Iran will be "closed" and restricted to the ministers.

The ministers are reportedly to discuss Iran’s military cooperation with Russia "that poses a direct threat to our security", Iran’s arbitrary detention of EU citizens as well as the human right situation, Iran’s hybrid operations conducted on European soil, Tehran’s destabilization activities in the region, including Iran’s ongoing support for armed groups in Gaza, Lebanon, Iraq and Yemen, and finally Iran’s dangerous nuclear trajectory. "Iran has now more than 30 times the amount of enrichment material foreseen in the JCPOA (the 2015 nuclear agreement)  limits," according to the senior EU official.

The latest developments in the Middle East – especially Gaza, Syria, Lebann and UNWRA- will be among the most important points on the Foreign Affairs Council’s agenda, alongside Ukraine three years after Russia’s invasion and the situation in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

"Gaza is part of the Palestinian future, also in the two-state solution. This is very clear and has always been the EU’s position, the support also to the Palestinian Authority, and to UNWRA," said the senior official who stressed that "the EU supports the first phase of the ceasefire with the deployment of our civilian border mission monitoring EUBAM Rafah".

After the Foreign Affairs Council, the EU and Israel held their 13th Association Council. Israeli Foreign Minister  Gideon Sa’ar is travelling to Brussels to co-chair the Council alongside EU Hight Representative for foreign affairs and security policy, Kaja Kallas, who is also Vice-President of the European Commission, and in the presence of Dubravka Šuica, European Commissioner for the Mediterranean, and representatives of EU member states.

The EU-Israel Association Council is responsible for managing and steering the Association Agreement between Israel and the European Union. It convened online in 2022, but has not gathered in person for more than ten years, partly because critics of Israel within the EU had blocked it.

According to the EU, during the Association Council: "The parties will engage in a political dialogue, focusing on the conflict in Gaza and Israeli-Palestinian relations, regional issues including Iran, and global issues.”

The discussion then covered EU-Israel bilateral relations which cover various sectors.

The fact that the Association Council is gathering  is a sign of improvement of Israel’s dialogue with the European Union under Kaja Kallas after “obsessional’’ criticism against Israel by her predecessor Josep Borrell.

“Monday’s Association Council is an important opportunity to reaffirm and strengthen the partnership between Israel and the EU,” Israel’s ambassador to the EU, Haim Regev, told Reuters.

At the meeting, the EU will emphasize both Europe’s commitment to Israel’s security and its view that “displaced Gazans should be ensured a safe and dignified return to their homes in Gaza”, according to a draft document seen by Reuters.

During his Brussels visit, Minister Sa’ar also held talks with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, European Parliament President Roberta Metsola, in addition to bilateral meetings with Belgian officials and Foreign Ministers from Hungary, Romania, the Netherlands, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Finland and Slovakia.

Share this article: