BRUSSELS: EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas on Tuesday said the bloc was leaving the door open to action against Israel over the war in Gaza if the humanitarian situation does not improve.
Kallas has put forward 10 potential options 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.
Despite growing anger over the devastation in Gaza, EU states remain divided over how to tackle Israel and there was no critical mass for taking any of the moves at a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brussels.
“We will keep these options on the table and stand ready to act if Israel does not live up to its pledges,” Kallas told journalists.
“The aim is not to punish Israel. The aim is to really improve the situation in Gaza.”
That comes after Kallas on Thursday announced a deal with Israel to open more entry points and allow in more food.
Gaza’s two million residents face dire humanitarian conditions as Israel has severely limited aid during its war with Palestinian militant group Hamas.
“We see some positive signs when it comes to opening border crossings, we see some positive signs of them reconstructing the electricity lines, providing water, also more trucks of humanitarian aid coming in,” Kallas said Monday.
But she said the situation in Gaza remained “catastrophic.”
“Of course, we need to see more in order to see real improvement for the people on the ground,” she said.
Irish minister Thomas Byrne, whose country has been one of the toughest in the EU on Israel, said Kallas had committed to updating member states every two weeks on the progress of humanitarian access to Gaza.
“So far, we haven’t really seen the implementation of it, maybe some very small actions, but there’s still slaughter going on,” he said.
“So we need to see action and we need to use our leverage.”
While the EU appears unable to take 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 military operations in Gaza following the collapse of a ceasefire in March.
Until then, deep divisions between countries backing Israel and those more favorable to the Palestinians had hamstrung any move.
But the splits within the bloc mean that it has struggled to have a major impact on the war in Gaza and Israel’s foreign minister Gideon Saar had predicted confidently that the bloc wouldn’t take any further action on Monday.
The war in Gaza 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 251 people taken hostage by Hamas, 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.
Israel and Hamas have been in indirect talks for two weeks over a new ceasefire deal, but talks appear to be deadlocked.
Divided EU leaves action against Israel on Gaza ‘on table’
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Divided EU leaves action against Israel on Gaza ‘on table’
- Bloc’s foreign policy chief put forward 10 potential steps after Israel was found to have breached cooperation deal between two sides on human rights grounds
Iraq election result ratified by Supreme Federal Court
- The Independent High Electoral Commission submitted the final results of the legislative elections to the Supreme Federal Court on Monday for official certification after resolving 853 complaints submitted regarding the election results
BAGHDAD: The result of last month’s parliamentary elections in Iraq was ratified by the Supreme Federal Court on Sunday, confirming that the party of caretaker Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al-Sudani won the largest number of seats — but not enough to assure him a second term.
The court confirmed that the voting process met all constitutional and legal requirements and contained no irregularities that would affect its validity.
The Independent High Electoral Commission submitted the final results of the legislative elections to the Supreme Federal Court on Monday for official certification after resolving 853 complaints submitted regarding the election results.
FASTFACT
Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al-Sudani’s Reconstruction and Development Coalition won 46 seats in the 329-seat parliament.
Al-Sudani’s Reconstruction and Development Coalition won 46 seats in the 329-seat parliament.
However, in past elections in Iraq, the bloc that won the most seats has often been unable to impose its preferred candidate.
The coalition led by former Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki won 29 seats, the Sadiqoun Bloc, which is led by the leader of the Asaib Ahl Al-Haq militia, Qais Al-Khazali, won 28 seats, and the Kurdistan Democratic Party, led by Masoud Barzani, one of the two main Kurdish parties in the country, won 27 seats.
The Taqaddum (Progress) party of ousted former Parliament Speaker Mohammed Al-Halbousi also won 27 seats, setting the stage for a contest over the speaker’s role.
Overall, Shiite alliances and lists secured 187 seats, Sunni groups 77 seats, Kurdish groups 56 seats, and nine seats reserved for minority groups.
Al-Sudani came to power in 2022 with the backing of the Coordination Framework, a coalition of Iran-backed Shiite parties, but it is unclear whether the alliance will support him again.
With no single bloc able to form a government alone, political leaders have launched negotiations to build a ruling coalition.
