Slovenia lifts entry ban on Israeli PM, arms embargo

LJUBLJANA: Slovenia’s new conservative-led government on Thursday lifted an arms embargo on Israel and entry bans on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and two of his ministers.
Last year, Slovenia, then under liberal prime minister Robert Golob, imposed measures against Israel over its war in Gaza.
Several other EU members have done the same.
But the government of Prime Minister Janez Jansa, which took office last week, overturned the bans against Netanyahu and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich.
“This will restore the conditions for a normal political dialogue with Israel,” it said in a statement.
The country is also letting the arms embargo expire, considering the decree “unnecessary” given existing national defense laws and EU arms export criteria, it said.
The government of Jansa — an admirer of US President Donald Trump — also lifted a ban on imports from Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank.
Last week, Israel announced it will open an embassy in Slovenia, marking what it hopes will be a new chapter in relations with the European country.
Since taking office, Jansa’s government has also removed a Palestinian flag symbolically displayed on the government building since Slovenia recognized Palestinian statehood in 2024.
Ties between Israel and Slovenia had soured under the previous center-left government of Golob, which also characterised Israel’s military offensive in Gaza as “genocide.”