EU says diplomacy best way to stop Iran getting nuclear bomb
BRUSSELS: The European Union said Tuesday diplomacy was the best path to tackle Tehran's nuclear programme, after emergency talks between its 27 foreign ministers on the conflict between Israel and Iran.
'We all agreed the urgent need for de-escalation. Iran cannot have a nuclear bomb, and diplomacy is the solution to prevent this, and (the) EU will play its part,' EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said following a video call.
Europe has been left largely on the sidelines in efforts to curb the violence between the two Middle East foes after Israel unleashed its initial strikes on Iran.
Europe played a key role in negotiating and overseeing a 2015 agreement on Iran's nuclear programme that Trump tore up during his first term in office.
Trump's administration had been trying to agree a new deal with Tehran before Israel kicked off the latest strikes, and talks are now on hold.
'As the Iran and US talks have run into some kind of standstill', Europe 'has more to say', Kallas said, adding that she had spoken Monday to Iran's foreign minister and key European counterparts.
Kallas said European countries were coordinating efforts to evacuate citizens who wanted to leave the region.
'We have member states that have planes leaving, we have member states who don't have planes, and we coordinate the efforts so that our citizens are safe,' she said.
The EU's top diplomat said she had received reassurances from US counterpart Marco Rubio that Washington was not looking to join in Israel's attacks on Iran.
'This is in nobody's interest,' she said.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Star
an hour ago
- The Star
Exclusive-Historic UN building in Geneva could be abandoned as Trump cuts loom
View of the Palais Wilson, base of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, and the former headquarters of the League of Nations, in Geneva, Switzerland, June 17, 2025. REUTERS/Emma Farge GENEVA (Reuters) -The U.N. building that was once the headquarters of the first modern global organisation dedicated to peace and international cooperation could soon be abandoned by the United Nations due to a funding crisis triggered partly by the Trump administration. Named after former U.S. President Woodrow Wilson, the opulent 225-room Palais Wilson in Geneva was the first headquarters of the forerunner of the U.N., the League of Nations, and today is home to the U.N. human rights arm. Now, with the Trump administration making cuts to foreign aid, hitting U.N. agencies, and also owing the U.N. nearly $1.5 billion in arrears and for this year, the body is trying to cut its budget by up to 20%, according to a memo. The U.N. Geneva office last week made a formal proposal to vacate Palais Wilson from mid-2026, according to two sources familiar with the situation and confirmed by the United Nations. That the U.N. is considering abandoning one of the most historic buildings in the annals of international cooperation underlines how the U.S. retreat from multilateralism has shaken the body to its foundations. In all, about 75 agencies and departments faced a June 13 deadline to propose budget cuts. Member states have the final say on the budget. Many have been supportive of financial retrenchment. Wilson, who died in 1924, was one of the architects of the League of Nations after World War One though the United States never formally joined. The U.N. in Geneva (UNOG) leases the 19th century Palais on behalf of the Office for the High Commissioner for Human Rights from a Swiss foundation under a nearly 30-year lease worth around 36 million Swiss francs ($44.25 million), U.N. documents show. "As part of UNOG's revised budget submission for 2026, and in line with guidance from headquarters to reduce the costs of lease payments, UNOG is indeed proposing in its submission for revised budget estimates that the end of the lease of Palais Wilson be brought forward," Alessandra Vellucci, director of the United Nations Information Service in Geneva, said. The lease had been due to expire in 2027. OHCHR spokesperson Jeremy Laurence said: "The U.N. is looking at all options to decrease costs, including a proposal to rehouse our headquarters in Geneva away from Palais Wilson, the symbolic home of human rights." He added that the impact of the financial crisis went far beyond this one proposal and that funding cuts by the United States and others were already affecting its work. The Trump administration has repeatedly defended the foreign aid cuts, saying they are focused on wasted funds. Trump said in February that the United Nations had "great potential and ... we'll continue to go along with it, but they got to get their act together". The U.N. cuts are part of a major review called "UN80" that the body launched in March to make it more efficient. The U.N. Controller will analyse proposed cuts and submit recommendations to Secretary General Antonio Guterres by early July, officials said. ($1 = 0.8135 Swiss francs) (Reporting by Emma Farge in Geneva; Additional reporting by John Shiffman in New York; Editing by Dave Graham and Alison Williams)
The Star
2 hours ago
- The Star
Trump Mobile pulls coverage map after ‘Gulf of Mexico' label sparks chatter online
U.S. President Donald Trump holds a mobile phone with his image on it, after his return from Pennsylvania, at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, U.S., May 30, 2025. REUTERS/Leah Millis REFILE - CORRECTING LOCATION FROM "WASHINGTON, D.C." TO "JOINT BASE ANDREWS, MARYLAND". (Reuters) -Just hours into Trump Mobile's Monday launch touting American-made smartphones, the venture pulled its coverage map after sharp-eyed users noticed a curious detail: the body of water south of Texas was labeled as the Gulf of Mexico instead of the Trump-preferred name, Gulf of America. The name of the international body of water has been a hot-button issue after President Donald Trump signed an executive order early in his second term, renaming it the Gulf of America, a name other countries reject. He has since barred the Associated Press news agency from certain White House events, triggering a lawsuit, as AP continues to use the international name, Gulf of Mexico. The Trump family licensed its name to the U.S. mobile service, the latest venture aiming to cash in on the president's political and cultural influence.A Reuters review of the website's code shows Trump Mobile appears to have used T-Mobile's network data for its coverage map. The telecom operator's coverage map labels the body of water as the Gulf of Mexico. The map stirred up chatter across social media before being removed, with numerous users posting screenshots of the old map. As of late morning on Tuesday, a link to Trump Mobile's coverage map returned an error, saying the page could not be found. The Trump Organization did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the coverage map being taken down from the website. Trump Mobile is powered by Liberty Mobile Wireless, a Florida-based company founded in 2018 by entrepreneur Matthew Lopatin. The company operates as a mobile virtual network operator, renting bandwidth from major carriers such as T-Mobile to offer its own service under a different name. The new venture also promised a gold smartphone eventually available for $499, though it did not say who would make the phone, as the U.S. has almost no domestic smartphone manufacturing. (Reporting by Akash Sriram in Bengaluru; editing by David Gaffen and Rod Nickel)
The Star
2 hours ago
- The Star
EU hits Greece with record fine over farmers subsidy fraud
FILE PHOTO: A European Union and the Greek flags flutter, with the Parthenon temple atop the Acropolis hill seen in the background in Athens, Greece, April 9, 2025. REUTERS/Alkis Konstantinidis/ File Photo (Reuters) -The European Union has imposed a 392.2 million-euro ($451.9 million) fine on Greece over a major scandal involving the mismanagement of agricultural subsidies by a government agency between 2016 and 2022. The bloc's Executive Commission decided to reduce the subsidies Greece will receive in the next years by 5%, it said on Friday, reflecting the view that there has been no proper supervision and operation of the subsidy management model for years. Greece expected to receive about 1.9 billion euros in direct EU subsidies next year. The fine comes months after European prosecutors charged dozens of Greek livestock farmers who received EU financial aid through the Greek government paying agency OPEKEPE with making false declarations of ownership or leasing of pastureland. The European Public Prosecutor's Office has said that the majority of the 100 suspects did not live where they had declared in their applications for funds from the European Agricultural Guarantee Fund and the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development. Greece last month promised to overhaul OPEKEPE, in charge of paying out annual subsidies to farmers worth about 2.4 billion euros, by merging it into the country tax authorities, with international consultants assisting in the transition. ($1 = 0.8678 euro) (Reporting by Angeliki Koutantou in Athens; Writing by Daria Sito-Sucic; Editing by Matthew Lewis)
