US action against Iran a threat to peace in Middle East, says Kallas

Potential military involvement by the United States in the wave of strikes between Israel and Iran would "definitely drag" the entire Middle East into a wider, more dangerous conflict, said Kaja Kallas.

Her warning came after Donald Trump openly suggested his country, a staunch backer of Israel, might take a hands-on approach to end the hostilities.

"We're not involved in it. It's possible we could get involved. But we are not at this moment involved," Trump told ABC News on Sunday. He later said the US would be "gloves off" if Iran were to "touch our troops".

"When it comes to the United States getting involved, then it will definitely drag the region into broader conflict. And this is in nobody's interest," Kallas said in Brussels after hosting a video conference with the EU's 27 foreign affairs ministers.

"And from my call with Secretary of State Rubio, he emphasized that it's also not in their interest to be drawn into this conflict," she added, referring to the conversation she had on Monday with her US counterpart.

"We are constantly pushing to stop this war because the risks of escalation and the risks of spillover effect are too great. Also, the risks of miscalculation, which is making this conflict even bigger."

Kallas also weighed in on Trump's stated goal of wanting a "real end" to the conflict that would see Iran giving up its nuclear program "entirely". The comments appeared to be at odds with the EU's long-held position of preventing Iran from developing nuclear weapons while permitting civilian uses.

The 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), also known as the Iran nuclear deal, was designed to curtail the country's nuclear program and keep it exclusively peaceful in exchange for sanctions relief. But after Trump disavowed the deal in his first mandate, Iran began enriching uranium to levels that seemed to exceed any civilian purposes, causing worldwide alarm and condemnation.

Last week, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) found Iran was not complying with its non-proliferation obligations for the first time in 20 years.

"A diplomatic solution is the best way to address Iran's program in the long run, and Europe stands ready to play its part," Kallas said. "We cannot be lenient when Iran accelerates its nuclear program."

Following the video call with foreign affairs ministers, Kallas doubled down on her previous calls for maximum restraint and immediate de-escalation, without adding any new element that could expand the bloc's limited role in the Israel-Iran conflict.

The most concrete development was the activation of the EU's Civil Protection Mechanism, which is used to coordinate emergency assistance for natural disasters, such as wildfires and floods, and man-made crises, like wars.

"We have activated the Civil Protection Mechanism, and we are assisting member states to evacuate their citizens that wish to leave," Kallas said, noting that not all EU countries had the necessary planes to carry out the evacuations.

"In parallel, we stand ready to deploy civil protection experts, and our naval operation ASPIDES (in the Red Sea) continues to protect merchant ships from Houthi attacks while providing valuable situational awareness."

Kallas said the EU would not "let our focus on Gaza slip" and urged "immediate" and "full" access to humanitarian aid, which Israel has heavily restricted.

She refrained from providing details of the ongoing review of the EU-Israel Association Agreement and how the strikes against Iran might influence the discussions.

Kallas also struck down Russia's suggestion of playing the role of moderator in the Israel-Iran conflict, arguing the invasion of Ukraine was a disqualifying factor.

"Russia cannot be a mediator if they don't really believe in peace," she said.

Saudi Arabia welcomes Trump's visit

The Council of Ministers welcomed on Monday the official visit of US President Donald Trump to Saudi Arabia, expressing optimism that the visit would strengthen and expand cooperation and the strategic partnership between the two friendly countries across various sectors, in a way serving their mutual interests and visions. Crown Prince and Prime Minister Mohammed bin Salman chaired the Cabinet session in Riyadh.

At the outset of the session, the Crown Prince briefed the Cabinet on the outcomes of recent talks with leaders of several friendly nations, focusing on bilateral relations and issues of mutual interest.

In a statement to the Saudi Press Agency following the session, Minister of State, Cabinet Member for Shoura Council’s Affairs and Acting Minister of Media Dr. Essam bin Saad bin Saeed said that the Cabinet reviewed regional and international developments and reiterated its firm condemnation of the Israeli occupation authorities' announcement regarding their incursion into and control of the Gaza Strip and Palestinian territories, as well as their ongoing violations of international humanitarian law. The Cabinet reaffirmed the Kingdom's unwavering support for the Palestinian cause and the rights of the Palestinian people.

The Cabinet welcomed the ceasefire agreement between Pakistan and India, and affirmed the Kingdom’s continued commitment to working with international partners to achieve lasting peace between the two nations.

The Cabinet discussed progress in cooperation with international organizations and forums, emphasizing that the Kingdom's hosting of the Munich Security Conference Leaders' Meeting in the last quarter of 2025 reflects its commitment to supporting multilateral approaches that promote international peace and security and address global challenges.

The Cabinet regarded the Kingdom’s election as the Arab Group’s representative to the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) Council as a testament to its leading role and ongoing efforts in advancing the aviation sector at the local, regional, and international levels, in accordance with the highest standards of safety and efficiency.

The Cabinet approved the guidelines for green investments. It approved the regulations to organize the General Authority of Civil Aviation. The Cabinet endorsed formation of a working group, headed by the General Directorate of Civil Defense and including members from several entities, to implement a program to raise awareness of meteorological phenomena, the mechanism for avoiding their risks, and the implications of alerts and warnings.

The Cabinet decided that the state would bear the taxes and customs duties on live livestock shipments from Dhul Qada 11, corresponding to May 9, until the end of this year's Hajj season.

The Cabinet approved a memorandum of understanding (MoU) between the Saudi Ministry of Energy and the Italian Ministry of Environment and Energy Security for cooperation in the field of energy, and a general cooperation agreement between the governments of Saudi Arabia and Eswatini.

The Council authorized the minister of foreign affairs or his deputy to discuss and sign with the Vanuatuan side a draft general cooperation agreement between the two governments, in addition to authorizing the minister of education or his deputy to discuss and sign with the US side a draft MoU for cooperation in the field of education and training.

The Cabinet approved a MoU between the Saudi Food and Drug Authority and the Chinese National Medical Products Administration for cooperation in the field of regulating drugs, medical devices, and cosmetics, and another MoU between the Saudi Human Rights Commission and Tajikistan's Commissioner for Human Rights.

The Council approved a MoU between the Saudi Presidency of State Security and the Omani General Secretariat for Communications and Coordination in the field of combating terrorism crimes and their financing, and another MoU for cooperation and news exchange between the Saudi Press Agency and the Senegalese Press Agency.

 

EU partially lifts sanctions on Syria

On Monday, foreign ministers of European Union (EU) decided to suspend a series of far-reaching sanctions against Syria to help the country's economic recovery and reconstruction after nearly 14 years of civil war.

According to Reuters, the Council decided to remove five financial entities (Industrial Bank, Popular Credit Bank, Saving Bank, Agricultural Cooperative Bank and Syrian Arab Airlines) from the list of entities subject to the freezing of funds and economic resources and to allow funds and economic resources to be made available to the Central Bank of Syria.

The EU has also suspended sectoral measures in the oil, gas, electricity, and transport sectors and introduced exemptions to the ban on banking relations between Syrian banks and financial institutions in the EU to facilitate transactions for humanitarian and reconstruction purposes, as well as for the energy and transport sectors.

The bloc will monitor the country’s situation to guarantee that suspensions remain appropriate with Kaja Kallas, the EU's top diplomat, stressing that "if everything does not go right, then we are also ready to put the sanctions back".

"Any kind of government needs to be all-inclusive and taking into account all the different groups that are in Syria,” she said.

Most of the EU's sanctions were imposed following Bashar al-Assad's violent crackdown on Syrian protesters in 2011, including broad restrictions on trade, financial transactions, and key industries such as energy and transport.

The sanctions led to the collapse of EU-Syria economic relations, with trade flows worth €396 million in 2023.

The regime of Bashar al-Assad was toppled in December last year by the Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which has since been calling for the lifting of wide-ranging sanctions to help the war-torn country's economy.

There have also been calls to remove HTS and its leader Ahmed al-Sharaa from international terrorist lists, but the Council decided to maintain such lists in relation to the al-Assad regime, as well as those on arms trafficking, dual-use goods, the chemical weapons sector, and illicit drug trafficking, among others.

The EU's blacklist, which was renewed in November, covers 318 individuals and 86 entities. All are subject to an assets freeze and a travel ban.

More than 90% of Syrians live below the poverty line and at least 16.5 million people across Syria rely on some form of humanitarian assistance to meet their basic needs, according to a report by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

Last week, Human Rights Watch (HRW) warned that sweeping EU, US, and UK sanctions on Syria are hampering the country's economic recovery and preventing millions of Syrians from accessing essential services such as electricity, health care, water, and education.

“Rather than using broad sectoral sanctions as leverage for shifting political objectives, Western governments should recognize their direct harm to civilians and take meaningful steps to lift restrictions that impede access to basic rights,” said Hiba Zayadin, senior Syria researcher at HRW.

“A piecemeal approach of temporary exemptions and limited waivers is not enough. Sanctions that harm civilians should immediately be lifted, not refined,” Zayadin added.

Iran embassy opens in Riyadh

Iran opened its embassy in its old headquarters in the Diplomatic Quarter in Riyadh. Those who attended the opening ceremony included Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs for Saudi Consular Affairs Ali Al-Youssef, Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister for Consular Affairs Ali Reza Bekdli, and the Iranian Chargé d’Affairs Hassan Zarnegar.

The embassy opening comes about three months after a bilateral agreement was reached between Saudi Arabia and Iran to resume bilateral relations, brokered by China. Last month, Iran appointed Alireza Enayati, a veteran diplomat, as its ambassador to Saudi Arabia.

The Iranian Foreign Ministry had announced on Monday that the country would re-open diplomatic missions in Saudi Arabia in the next two days. Nasser Kanaani, spokesman of the ministry, said in a statement earlier that the Iranian embassy in the Saudi capital Riyadh and consulate general and representative office to the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) in Jeddah would officially re-open on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Kanaani stated that the embassy in Riyadh and its consulate-general in Jeddah had already begun operating to help Iranian pilgrims heading to Saudi Arabia to perform Hajj, set to start by the end of June.

Under a Chinese-brokered deal reached in March, Saudi Arabia and Iran agreed to re-establish relations, which were severed in 2016 following an attack on the Saudi embassy in Tehran and consulate in Mashhad.

 

Israeli overindulgence becoming headache for United States

For decades, the primary concern of the United States, under both democratic and republican administrations, is to make sure that Israel is able and ready to defend itself. 

The US citizens pay for expansionist policies and influential lobbies of Israel in the US political power structure, under the justification of securing the country's interests.

The truth is, contrary to what US officials constantly claim, unilateral and unconditional support for Israel always has the opposite effect. Not only has it not resolved the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but it also has made the United States ousting from the region a uniting objective for Western Asian populations, giving rise to terrorism and extremism.

Israel's opposition to the US returning to the Iran deal is another classic example of the Zionists' attempt to turn its concerns with removing Iran sanctions into a global one. They argue to the European and the US governments that the deal is flawed and that Plan B ‑ military option ‑ is inevitable. According to the US strategic national security documents, it is in its best interest to establish peace and stability in West Asia and the Persian Gulf.

It is necessary to reiterate that the unequivocal and unwavering support for Israel not only does the United States interests disservice, but it also runs counter to it. It further angers the Muslim nations and encourages masses to oppose and actively target the US interests in the region.

Perhaps it is time for the members of Congress and the Federal government to pay closer attention to Israel playing the victim card and manipulatively globalizing its interests. It is wasting the US tax-payers’ money and putting the lives of the US soldiers in danger, to only secure Israel’s security and its interests.

Therefore, it is clear that the Israeli regime manipulates the US administration to achieve its most wanted objective and interest of taking a strike on Iran by removing its key player. Sadly, the Trump administration succumbed to Israel's demand to make an unlawful killing, leaving Iran with no retaliatory option other than firing a barrage of rockets at Ain Al-Assad Base housing the US troops. The attack, unprecedented as it was, led to several wounded US soldiers, and, above all, it discredited and humiliated the United States in regional and global arenas.

The Islamic Republic of Iran has never recognized Israel as a legitimate state. Therefore, Israeli officials and the Zionist lobbyists in Washington direct their destabilizing activities toward the Islamic Republic and never miss an opportunity to turn the US administrations against the Islamic Republic.

One of the many tipping moments when Israeli officials proved most influential in the US foreign policy decision-making was the unlawful assassination of General Soleimani, which has been admitted to by Israeli intelligence officials.

In an interview with the Israel Channel 12, Tamir Hayman, a former Israeli intelligence chief, acknowledged that the Israeli intelligence services informed the US officials that the Iranian Quds General had been planning on an extensive military operation, in the Persian Gulf, against the American forces. Accordingly, the US forces were on alert for possible Iranian aggression.

Contrary to what the Israeli officials claimed, General Soleimani and his associates flew to Iraq on a civilian airplane to carry a message about “the Baghdad Initiative” to reduce regional tensions, according to Adil Abdul-Mahdi, the former Iraq Prime Minister.

Commencement of commercial flights between Egypt and Israel

An Egyptair aircraft landed at Ben-Gurion Airport on Sunday in the airline’s first-ever commercial flight to Israel. The Egyptian national carrier will now run four weekly round-trip commercial flights between Tel Aviv and Cairo. 

Sunday’s flight was greeted with the traditional water sprays shot in the air in celebration of the historic event.

Since Israel and Egypt signed a peace deal in 1979, flights between the two countries have been offered by a subsidiary of Egyptair, called Air Sinai, created exclusively for that purpose. Those flights ran with varying frequencies between the two countries, depending on diplomatic conditions, and never showed the company’s logo on the plane.

Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett had met with Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi in Sharm el-Sheikh three weeks ago in the first visit of an Israeli prime minister to Egypt in a decade. Sisi felt comfortable at the time announcing the meeting publicly, whereas in the past, only Israel would publicize such high-level diplomatic events.

The flight followed another “historic first” flight last week, a direct commercial flight to Israel from Bahrain, kicking off Gulf Air’s new biweekly route between Ben-Gurion and Manama, Bahrain’s capital city.

Flights between Israel and Dubai began last November, and a direct route to Abu Dhabi launched in April. In July, El Al and Israir both launched their first flights to Marrakesh, Morocco, following the normalization of ties in December.

Israel has had peace with Egypt since 1979, but while Cairo has remained an important strategic partner throughout, the relationship has had hot and cold periods.

Last month the Taba border crossing between Israel and Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula returned to full activity after Israel’s National Security Council lowered the travel alert level of beaches there. Travel to Sinai, a popular tourist destination for Israelis, was severely restricted during the past year due to the corona pandemic.

Can US$3.4 billion helicopter sale to Israel be stopped?

A US$735 million precision-guided weapons sale to Israel caused a firestorm on Capitol Hill earlier this year amid a two-week military conflict between Israel and Hamas in which more than 200 Palestinians were killed. 

Progressive Democrats in the House and Senate introduced resolutions to block the sale, but the congressional review period had already lapsed, dooming those efforts from the start. 

In a fresh bid, the State Department has approved selling Israel up to 18 CH-53K heavy-lift cargo helicopters in a deal estimated to be worth US$3.4 billion. “The United States is committed to the security of Israel, and it is vital to US national interests to assist Israel to develop and maintain a strong and ready self-defense capability. This proposed sale is consistent with those objectives,” the notice from the Defense Security Cooperation Agency said.

In addition to the Lockheed Martin-made helicopters, the deal would include related equipment including up to 60 General Electric-made engines, up to 36 navigation systems, communication equipment, .50 caliber machine guns and more, as well as technical and logistical support.

The sale would help the Israeli Air Force’s “capability to transport armored vehicles, personnel and equipment to support distributed operations,” the notice said.

“Israel will use the enhanced capability as a deterrent to regional threats and to strengthen its homeland defense,” it added.

The notice kicks off a congressional review period in which lawmakers could vote to block the sale if they wanted.

Progressive Democrats in the House and Senate introduced resolutions to block the sale, but the congressional review period had already lapsed, dooming those efforts from the start.