European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and other EU leaders hosted a delegation of Middle Eastern leaders, including Lebanese President Joseph Aoun, on the second day of their summit in Cyprus.
He held talks on the Middle East at a working lunch with representatives of Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria on Friday afternoon.
Calling for peace in Iran, an agreement to curb Tehran’s nuclear ambitions and the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz “without tolls”, von der Leyen also stressed that a peace deal should also include Lebanon.
Von der Leyen said, “A key lesson of the past weeks is that security is indivisible. You cannot have stability in the Middle East or the Gulf while Lebanon is in flames.”
Without explicitly calling on Israel to deploy troops to southern Lebanon to establish a self-declared “buffer zone”, von der Leyen believed that Israeli military withdrawal should ultimately be part of the peace agreement.
He added, “We therefore call for respect for Lebanon’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. A temporary pause is not enough. We need a permanent path to peace. And we will continue to support the Lebanese people along the way.”
Summit host Cyprus, which lies 300 kilometers (186 miles) off the Lebanese coast, has been directly affected by the conflict – an Iranian drone attacked a British military base shortly after the war began in late February.
Iran – EU warns of danger of Iran nuclear deal ‘weaker’ than JCPOA
Von der Leyen and European Council President Antonio Costa both said the war showed the dangers of Iran’s nuclear ambitions and said any peace deal needed to address its ballistic missile program.
Earlier on Friday, EU foreign policy chief Kaza Kallas warned that talks with Iran to end the US-Israeli war risked resulting in a “weaker” deal than the one reached a decade ago over Tehran’s nuclear program. He called on nuclear experts to be part of the proceedings.
“If the conversation is only about nuclear [issue] “And there are no nuclear experts at the table, then we will end up with an agreement that is weaker than the JCPOA,” Callas told reporters on the second day of an informal EU leaders’ summit in Cyprus.
The JCPOA, sealed by the Obama administration in 2015, took two years to negotiate and involved nearly 200 experts in nuclear physics, sanctions, finance and law. US President Donald Trump withdrew from the agreement in 2018. This week he vowed to strike a “far better” nuclear deal.
Callas said that if negotiators do not address Iran’s “missile programs, their support proxies, hybrid and cyber activities in Europe” it is likely “we will end up with an even more dangerous Iran.”
EU rejects toll charges in Strait of Hormuz, says European and Middle Eastern security are interconnected
Costa welcomed the announcement of the ceasefire extension by US President Donald Trump and called for the “immediate reopening of the Strait of Hormuz without any restrictions and tolls” in accordance with international law and freedom of navigation.
“This is important for the whole world,” Costa said.
Iran has floated the idea of charging fees for passage through the narrow strait, effectively framing these payments as a way to offset losses incurred by US and Israeli bombing. Von der Leyen also stressed that the waterway should be reopened.
“Europe must do even more,” French President Emmanuel Macron told reporters in the Cyprus capital, Nicosia. “It is in the interests of all of us to restore stability and return the world’s economies to normal as quickly as possible.”
European Council President Antonio Costa called for a ceasefire in Iran and the wider region.
“The war in the Middle East has already had devastating consequences for people, for pressures, for the global economy,” Costa said in Nicosia. “And with each day that passes without any solution, the situation is getting worse.”
He said the current situation “clearly underlines” how closely European security is linked to the Middle East, and how important cooperation on security and defense has become.
Similarly, von der Leyen said the EU and Gulf states have realized in recent weeks that they need to deepen their partnership.
Von der Leyen said, “The events of the past months have taught us a hard truth. Our security is not just relative, it is intrinsically linked.” “For example, a threat to a merchant ship in the Strait of Hormuz is a threat to a factory. So today I propose that we move beyond reactive crisis management.”
He suggested various possible projects, such as expanding the size and scope of naval operations and considering some form of cooperation on defensive efforts against threats such as drones and missiles.
eu budget
On Friday morning, leaders debated the next EU budget for the period 2028-2034.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz stressed that he opposes increasing member state contributions and taking on new debt.
“Europe must do something with the money we have,” Merz said. “We have to set new priorities.”
“This means we will also have to reduce spending in other areas of the European budget,” the Chancellor said.
The EU executive wants a bigger budget of about €2 trillion ($2.3 trillion) to repay debts incurred during the pandemic. A major challenge will be to figure out how to finance goals such as boosting the EU’s competitiveness and defense capabilities at a time when many member states are short of funds.
ukraine
On Thursday the leaders met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and greenlighted a €90 billion loan for Kiev. They also adopted a 20th sanctions package against Russia over Moscow’s war on Ukraine.
Kallas said on Friday that the bloc was already considering imposing the next round of sanctions.
“We are really pushing to move to a 21st package of sanctions,” he said. “It sends a very clear signal to Russia that they can’t outmaneuver us. It also sends a clear signal to Russia that Ukraine is more important to Russia than to them, and we will continue to support them.”
Edited by: Sean Sinico, Dmytro Lyubenko