The EU asks to avoid a regional escalation and will impose sanctions on Iran for supplying drones to related forces

Follow live the latest news on Iran's attack on Israel

Follow live the latest news on Iran's attack on Israel

BRUSSELS, April 16 () –

The foreign ministers of the European Union have expressed this Tuesday their condemnation of the unprecedented attack with drones and missiles by Iran against Israel last Saturday, asking to avoid at all costs a military escalation that leads to a war in the Middle East and committing to adopt more sanctions against Tehran's military sector.

At a press conference from Brussels after the extraordinary meeting called by videoconference to discuss the crisis in the area, the EU High Representative for Foreign Policy, Josep Borrell, warned that the region is “on the brink of the abyss” after the attacks. crusaders of Israel and Iran, pointing out that there is a “chess game” dynamic that can end with a “total war.”

For this reason, he has asked that the parties move away from the precipice and that their movements do not generate more tension that could lead to a regional war. “It is about preventing this,” he defended, ensuring that to prevent escalation in the region we must prevent “the next step on the ladder from arriving,” in reference to an increase in Israel's retaliation after the offensive with drones and missiles from Tehran that the ayatollah regime justifies by the Israeli attack on its Consulate in Syria at the beginning of April.

Together with the support of Israel's security in the face of the threat posed by Iran's attack, the head of European diplomacy has confirmed that he will ask his services to work to “expand” the existing sanctions against Iran's drone sector.

In this way, the 27 have asked to increase the sanctions that currently punish the supply of parts and components to Russia so that they can also be used against the sending of Iranian missiles and drones to related forces in the region, in the case of Hezbollah in Lebanon or the Houthis. in Yemen. Along with these countries, Borrell has also mentioned Iraq and Syria.

Thus, he has indicated that the next meeting of EU Foreign and Defense Ministers in Luxembourg on Monday the 22nd will be the next occasion to study steps in the direction of redoubling sanctions on Iran.

“DON'T FORGET GAZA”

In any case, the High Representative has insisted that solidarity with Israel over the threat posed by Iran must go hand in hand with promoting a solution to the crisis in Gaza, where the Israeli offensive has left more than 33,000 dead in half a year.

“Let's not forget Gaza. Let's not forget what happens there,” Borrell stressed to insist that there will be no stability in the region, nor a lasting peace for Israel with its neighbors if the war continues in the Strip, launched by Israel after the attacks. Hamas terrorists on October 7 who killed 1,200 people in Israeli territory.

“The war in Gaza must be taken into consideration and we must work to end the crisis with an immediate and lasting ceasefire, the release of hostages and focus on the catastrophic situation in the Strip,” he noted, underlining that he continues without reaching the amount of humanitarian aid that the Gazan population requires.

In this sense, Borrell has been very skeptical about the option that the Palestinian population can return to northern Gaza, where he has assured that “there is nothing” and “it is like the moon.” “I don't see how 1.7 million people can return to the north where living conditions have disappeared,” he warned.