BERLIN – Spain and Ireland are leading a camp of EU countries that are hostile to Israel and fixated with “ruining” a once close relationship with Europe, Israel’s Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar told Euractiv.
Earlier this week, the EU agreed on sanctions against Israeli settlers accused of violence against Palestinians in the West Bank, where the bloc has opposed Israel’s settlement policy in the contested territory.
Sa’ar warned that certain European governments, backing broader trade sanctions against Israel, are determined to drive a wedge between the EU and Jerusalem.
“There is a non-stop attempt by a group of governments hostile to Israel, such as Spain, Ireland and others, to drag the EU – which includes countries friendly towards Israel, such as Germany and others – towards a hostile and obsessive approach regarding Israel,” he said.
“As such, hostile governments bring about division in the EU policy, further it from consensus, and try to ruin its relations with Israel.”
He called on the EU to take a balanced approach to Israel and Palestinians based on consensus and unanimity between the bloc’s 27 member countries. “Unfortunately, there are certain governments pushing the EU in the opposite direction,” he said.
Sa’ar praised his country’s strategic alliance with Germany pointing out that Israel had proven itself a reliable partner by delivering the Arrow 3 anti-ballistic-missile system even while it was at war.
“The partnership between Israel and Germany is an investment in our mutual future,” he said, highlighting the potential for further cooperation in the defence sector.
“The ability to combine Israel’s technology and combat experience with Germany’s industrial depth has the potential to allow for top scale defence cooperation.”
Regarding US-Israeli military action against the Iranian regime, Sa’ar warned the EU against passivity. “Some Europeans said, ‘It’s not our war,’ but I think they are wrong,” he said.
“The Iranian regime has had Europe in its sights for a long time,” Sa’ar added. “Despite their lies, Iran has developed missiles capable of reaching Europe, as we saw in the attack on the Diego Garcia base.”
Prior to the war, Iran analysts in the US and Israel believed Iran’s ballistic missiles had a maximum range of between 2,000 and 3,000 kilometres. The firing of a missile in the early weeks of the war towards Diego Garcia, an island in the Indian Ocean roughly 4,000 kilometres away, showed that the Iranian missile programme has developed rockets capable of reaching most of Europe.
The regime is also obstructing European shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, Sa’ar said.
“It maintains a constant threat through its terrorist proxies and criminal gangs it has recruited throughout [Europe]. If this is how it behaves now, imagine what it would do under a nuclear umbrella?”, he said.
“The Iranian regime is a danger to global security and world order. Therefore, the outcome of this war will have far-reaching consequences accordingly.”
This article has been updated.
(bw, cs)
