BRUSSELS: Protests against the Iranian government were held in Brussels on Wednesday ahead of a meeting between European powers and Iran on the nuclear deal.
The meeting on Thursday with Iran foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif comes on the eve of a deadline for the US president to decide whether to reimpose oil sanctions lifted under the agreement.
Iran, Britain, France, and Germany are expected to reaffirm their support for the deal that Donald Trump has rejected, EU diplomats told Reuters.
The deal aimed to curb Iran’s pursuit of nuclear weapons in return for an end to some sanctions placed upon it.
Donald Trump has sworn to tear up the deal in a tougher stance against Iran than his predecessor. He also strongly supported recent anti-government protests held across Iran that were sparked by economic hardship and corruption but spiralled into calls for the downfall of the clerical leadership.
Members of the Iranian community in Belgium, supporters of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran and the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) protested in Brussels against Mr.Zarif’s visit.
The protest was held outside the European Commission and European Council buildings, where the meetings will take place.
The protesters called on the European Union to cancel the meeting and for the EU to support the ongoing protests and regime change in Iran and condemn the killings of demonstrators.
During the meeting convened by the EU’s top diplomat Federica Mogherini, the European powers that helped negotiate the 2015 accord will reassure Tehran they remain committed to it, the diplomats said.
They will also urge Iran to continue to comply with international inspectors.
“The aim is to send a message to Washington that Iran is complying and that it is better to have the nuclear agreement than to isolate Tehran,” one diplomat said.
A spokesman for Iran’s atomic energy agency said on Wednesday that a reimposition of sanctions by the United States would be a violation of the nuclear deal and added that the Islamic Republic had the capacity to greatly increase its enrichment of uranium.
In October Trump decided not to certify that Tehran is meeting the terms of the pact.
The US president must decide by mid-January whether to continue waiving US sanctions on Iran’s oil exports under the terms of the deal. The State Department said on Tuesday the Trump administration was expected to decide on Friday.
Protests in Brussels ahead of Iran nuclear meeting
Protests in Brussels ahead of Iran nuclear meeting
UN chief calls on Israel to reverse NGOs ban in Gaza
- In November, authorities in Gaza said more than 70,000 people had been killed there since the war broke out
- Israel on Thursday suspended 37 foreign humanitarian organizations from accessing the Gaza Strip after they had refused to share lists of their Palestinian employees with government officials
UNITED NATIONS, United States: UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres called on Friday for Israel to end a ban on humanitarian agencies that provided aid in Gaza, saying he was “deeply concerned” at the development.
Guterres “calls for this measure to be reversed, stressing that international non-governmental organizations are indispensable to life-saving humanitarian work and that the suspension risks undermining the fragile progress made during the ceasefire,” his spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said in a statement.
“This recent action will further exacerbate the humanitarian crisis facing Palestinians,” he added.
Israel on Thursday suspended 37 foreign humanitarian organizations from accessing the Gaza Strip after they had refused to share lists of their Palestinian employees with government officials.
The ban includes Doctors Without Borders (MSF), which has 1,200 staff members in the Palestinian territories — the majority of whom are in Gaza.
NGOs included in the ban have been ordered to cease their operations by March 1.
Several NGOS have said the requirements contravene international humanitarian law or endanger their independence.
Israel says the new regulation aims to prevent bodies it accuses of supporting terrorism from operating in the Palestinian territories.
On Thursday, 18 Israel-based left-wing NGOs denounced the decision to ban their international peers, saying “the new registration framework violates core humanitarian principles of independence and neutrality.”
A fragile ceasefire has been in place since October, following a deadly war waged by Israel in response to Hamas’s unprecedented October 7, 2023, attack on Israel.
In November, authorities in Gaza said more than 70,000 people had been killed there since the war broke out.
Nearly 80 percent of buildings in Gaza have been destroyed or damaged by the war, according to UN data, leaving infrastructure decimated.
About 1.5 million of Gaza’s more than two million residents have lost their homes, said Amjad Al-Shawa, director of the Palestinian NGO Network in Gaza.
