Latest news with #MiddleEastEye
Middle East Eye
11 hours ago
- Business
- Middle East Eye
EU review finds Israel violated trade agreement, but sanctions not expected
A major upcoming review of the EU-Israel trade agreement has found that Israel has violated the agreement due to its conduct in Gaza, Middle East Eye understands. EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas commissioned the review last month in response to a request by the Dutch government. Now MEE understands from diplomatic sources in Brussels that the review finds that Israel has violated the trade agreement's human rights and international law clauses. The EU is Israel's biggest trading partner. Sources told MEE the review contains evidence that Israel has breached international humanitarian law during its war on Gaza. They said that Kallas will present the review to EU foreign ministers in Brussels on Monday. New MEE newsletter: Jerusalem Dispatch Sign up to get the latest insights and analysis on Israel-Palestine, alongside Turkey Unpacked and other MEE newsletters Diplomats expect a "difficult" debate and believe there will be no agreement reached on whether to "suspend political dialogue" or impose sanctions on Israel. Those issues will be addressed again at the 15 July meeting of EU foreign ministers, diplomats believe. MEE also understands that Kallas has a mandate from EU foreign ministers to push for de-escalation in the conflict between Israel and Iran - and that she is set to visit the Middle East next week. MEE has contacted Kallas' team for comment. Israel has gone 'beyond self-defence' Foreign ministers from Britain, France and Germany are reportedly scheduled to join Kallas on Friday in a meeting with the Iranian foreign minister to promote de-escalation. EUObserver and RTE have also reported the review is expected to find Israel violated the trade agreement. EU Commission and states indirectly fund Israeli military industry, report says Read More » On Wednesday Kallas told members of the European parliament that Israel's "blocking food... goes beyond self-defence". She said Israel was responsible for "disproportionate use of force" against civilians - and that "if it was up to me, personally", the EU would impose sanctions on Israel. Last week it emerged that Israel's largest state-owned defence company, which is directly involved in the war on Gaza, has received millions of euros in EU defence funding. According to a report published last Wednesday by Investigate Europe, the French newsroom Disclose and the Greek outlet Reporters United, Intracom Defense is currently involved in 15 European Defence Fund projects worth at least €15m (around $17.5m). Seven of them were awarded after Israel launched its war on Gaza in October 2023. The company was acquired by Israel Aerospace Industries in May 2023.
Middle East Eye
13 hours ago
- Business
- Middle East Eye
Exclusive: EU review finds Israel violated trade agreement, but sanctions not expected
A major upcoming review of the EU-Israel trade agreement has found that Israel has violated the agreement due to its conduct in Gaza, Middle East Eye understands. EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas commissioned the review last month in response to a request by the Dutch government. Now MEE understands from diplomatic sources in Brussels that the review finds that Israel has violated the trade agreement's human rights and international law clauses. The EU is Israel's biggest trading partner. Sources told MEE the review contains evidence that Israel has breached international humanitarian law during its war on Gaza. They said that Kallas will present the review to EU foreign ministers in Brussels on Monday. New MEE newsletter: Jerusalem Dispatch Sign up to get the latest insights and analysis on Israel-Palestine, alongside Turkey Unpacked and other MEE newsletters Diplomats expect a "difficult" debate and believe there will be no agreement reached on whether to "suspend political dialogue" or impose sanctions on Israel. Those issues will be addressed again at the 15 July meeting of EU foreign ministers, diplomats believe. MEE also understands that Kallas has a mandate from EU foreign ministers to push for de-escalation in the conflict between Israel and Iran - and that she is set to visit the Middle East next week. MEE has contacted Kallas' team for comment. Israel has gone 'beyond self-defence' Foreign ministers from Britain, France and Germany are reportedly scheduled to join Kallas on Friday in a meeting with the Iranian foreign minister to promote de-escalation. EUObserver and RTE have also reported the review is expected to find Israel violated the trade agreement. EU Commission and states indirectly fund Israeli military industry, report says Read More » On Wednesday Kallas told members of the European parliament that Israel's "blocking food... goes beyond self-defence". She said Israel was responsible for "disproportionate use of force" against civilians - and that "if it was up to me, personally", the EU would impose sanctions on Israel. Last week it emerged that Israel's largest state-owned defence company, which is directly involved in the war on Gaza, has received millions of euros in EU defence funding. According to a report published last Wednesday by Investigate Europe, the French newsroom Disclose and the Greek outlet Reporters United, Intracom Defense is currently involved in 15 European Defence Fund projects worth at least €15m (around $17.5m). Seven of them were awarded after Israel launched its war on Gaza in October 2023. The company was acquired by Israel Aerospace Industries in May 2023.
Middle East Eye
16 hours ago
- Politics
- Middle East Eye
Iranian missiles rain down on Tel Aviv after Israel attacks Arak nuclear reactor
Iranian ballistic missile struck several areas of Israel on Thursday, with extensive damage reported at the Israeli stock exchange building in Ramat Gan, Tel Aviv, as well as a major hospital in the south of the country. Images seen by Middle East Eye showed shattered glass and debris strewn onto the streets outside the stock exchange, the heart of the country's economy, with damage also reported at several nearby offices and residential buildings. Meanwhile, unverified footage posted on social media showed people running through corridors of the Soroko hospital in Beer Sheva as doctors stood outside the wrecked building. "BREAKING: A direct hit has been reported at Soroka Hospital in Be'er Sheva, southern Israel. More details to follow," the foreign ministry said in a post on X. A spokesperson for the hospital reported "damage to the hospital and extensive damage in various areas." New MEE newsletter: Jerusalem Dispatch Sign up to get the latest insights and analysis on Israel-Palestine, alongside Turkey Unpacked and other MEE newsletters "We are currently assessing the damage, including injuries. We ask the public not to come to the hospital at this time," they said. Iran denied claims that it directly attacked the hospital, saying it launched a "precise and direct" on a nearby Israeli military target. "The target of attack was the large [Israeli army] Command and Intelligence headquarters and the military intelligence camp in the Gav-Yam Technology Park," the Iranian state news agency IRNA reported. Following the attack, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to make Iran's leadership "pay a heavy price." The strikes across Israel came hours after Israel's latest attack on Iran's sprawling nuclear programme, striking Iran's Arak heavy water reactor. Iranian state television reported that there was "no radiation danger whatsoever" and that the facility had been evacuated before the attack. Since Friday, when Israel launched its assault on Iran, Israel has repeated targeted the country's military and nuclear facilities, as well as assassinated high-profile security, intelligence and military commanders as well as scientists. The attacks, which have also targeted residential areas, have killed more 500 people and wounded at least 1,300, many of them civilians. In response, Iran has fired barrages of missiles towards Haifa, Tel Aviv and other major Israeli cities, killing dozens. Hundreds of missiles have been launched since Friday, and whilst Israel's air defence systems are robust, they have been unable to stop all of them. Israel's military censor, as a matter of policy, has barred local and international media outlets from publishing the details of the exact locations targeted. Earlier this week, the Israeli army said in a statement that the country's air defences were not fully secure against missile attacks. Meanwhile, a senior US official familiar told MEE that Israel, along with the US, were exhausting supplies of ballistic missile interceptors, just days into the hostilities with Iran. US President Donald Trump, who initially distanced himself from the conflict, has increased US military presence in the region and is weighing up ordering attacks on Iran. Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, warned on Wednesday that the US would face "irreparable damage" if it shifted from supporting Israel's defence to an active role in attacking the Islamic Republic.
Middle East Eye
a day ago
- Politics
- Middle East Eye
As Trump weighs bombing Iran's Fordow, 'mission creep' lurks behind US attack
US President Donald Trump believes he is only weighing military strikes on Iran's Fordow nuclear plant, but the history of Middle East "mission creep" lurks behind his deliberations. Mission creep is when a military campaign's objectives start to shift and devolve into a longer, unforeseen commitment, and has often characterised US military adventures around the world. "If the US does join the war in Iran - and right now I think it won't - it will go in planning only to do some limited bombing. But as we all know, once you're in a war, there can be a lot of surprises. It is much easier to get into a war than to get out of one,' Tom E Ricks, the author of Fiasco: The American Military Adventure in Iraq, told Middle East Eye. On Thursday evening, The Wall Street Journal reported that Trump approved a US attack plan on Iran but is waiting to see if he can get Iran to renounce its nuclear programme. The New York Times also followed that with a report saying Iran was willing to accept Trump's offer to meet. But history shows that the US may struggle to stop at Fordow, even if Trump wants to. His deliberation on whether to attack Iran is being compared to the 2003 decision to invade Iraq, but that might be a false comparison. New MEE newsletter: Jerusalem Dispatch Sign up to get the latest insights and analysis on Israel-Palestine, alongside Turkey Unpacked and other MEE newsletters The story of the US's involvement in Iraq is one of incremental involvement. In 1991, the US implemented a no-fly zone to protect Iraq's Kurdish minority. Then, in 1998, the US and UK launched widespread strikes on Iraq on the grounds that Saddam Hussein failed to allow weapons inspectors access to his country. The decision to invade fully came in 2003 after the US falsely claimed the country had weapons of mass destruction and was linked to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda militant group. Even then, experts say there are key differences from now. Although Israel lobbied the US for many years to invade Iraq, that war was US-led. US joins 'Israel-led war' Now, Trump is on the cusp of joining Israel in what is the zenith of its long campaign to rewrite the balance of power in the Middle East since the Hamas-led attack on 7 October 2023. That attack set off a region-wide war with Israeli ground troops occupying the Gaza Strip. Israel degraded Hezbollah in Lebanon and has repeatedly launched strikes in Syria, both while Bashar al-Assad's government was in power there and after his overthrow in December 2024. 'Iraq was a US war,' Paul Salem, a senior fellow at the Middle East Institute, told MEE. 'What we have seen since 7 October [2023] is something different; Israeli-led and designed wars with Israeli objectives and the US coming along.' If Trump does launch strikes on Iran, he will do so under justifications that echo 2003, but it's still not an apples-to-apples comparison. Then, the US falsely claimed that Iraq's Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction, including nuclear weapons. But there are key differences now. 'What makes this precipice of intervention unique is that the US was engaged in direct negotiations with Iran,' Fawaz Gerges, author of What Really Went Wrong: The West and the Failure of Democracy in the Middle East, told MEE. 'What makes this precipice of intervention unique is that the US was engaged in direct negotiations with Iran' - Fawaz Gerges, academic and author Indeed, just before the Israeli attack, Iran and the US were set to meet in Oman for the sixth round of nuclear talks aimed at curbing Iran's nuclear programme. And the reality is that this agreement would just be a follow-up deal to the nuclear deal that Iran and the US signed during President Barack Obama's tenure, which Trump unilaterally exited from during his first tenure. However, in 2003, Hussein ultimately rejected requests for inspectors to enter Iraq. The Bush administration then used false intelligence to justify its attack. Trump's own director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, said in March that Iran was not seeking to build a nuclear weapon. Trump disregarded her assessment. 'I don't care what she said,' Trump said on Tuesday about the assessment. 'I think they were very close to having a weapon.' As of Thursday, Trump was still vacillating between striking Iran and appearing to use Israel's pummelling of the Islamic Republic as a negotiating card to achieve what he says his aim is - Iran renouncing all enrichment of uranium. "I may do it. I may not do it. I mean, nobody knows what I'm going to do," Trump said in the Oval Office. He earlier called for Iran's 'unconditional surrender'. Arab officials whose countries have been trying to mediate between Iran and the US told MEE earlier that they believe Trump is more likely than not to order US strikes on Iran. The expected target of American strikes is Fordow, the Iranian enrichment facility buried half a kilometre underground. Israel needs the US's 30,000-pound Massive Ordnance Penetrator bombs and B-2 aircraft to have a chance at destroying the plant through conventional strikes. Mission creep The US has conducted limited bombing campaigns elsewhere in the Middle East, but has rarely avoided being drawn into a deeper commitment. One example where it did so was 1986 in Libya, when the Reagan administration bombed Muammar Gaddafi's regime in retaliation for the bombing of a disco in West Berlin that killed two US service members. Ethan Chorin, a former US diplomat and author, said the closest parallel to today is the Obama administration's 2011 decision to lead a Nato bombing campaign on Libya during the Arab Spring. 'Initially, US intervention in Libya was ostensibly to protect civilians in Benghazi,' Chorin said, author of Exit the Colonel: The Hidden History of the Libyan Revolution. But Chorin said the comparisons stop there. 'Libya was seen as a 'safer bet' for intervention during the Arab Spring. No one thinks Iran is marginal. There is a big difference. But the concern about mission creep is there.' Diego Garcia: The Indian Ocean base the US can use to target Iran Read More » 'Assume you destroy Fordow and have an agitated regime that is still in power. What lessons will they (the regime) have learned?' he added. The Trump administration has not stated that its goal is regime change in Iran, but Trump didn't rule it out, saying on Truth Social that the US knows where he is but has decided not to take him out, "at least not for now". But Israel has made no secret that a positive outcome for them of the attacks on Iran's senior chain of command, energy infrastructure and military capabilities could collapse the government. 'It could certainly be the result, because Iran is very weak,' Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Fox News on Monday. 'The decision to act, to rise up, at this time, is the decision of the Iranian people.' If Trump does enter the war with Israel, suggesting its goals are regime change, it would be a major pivot for a US president who visited the Gulf in May and excoriated 'interventionists' and 'nation-builders'. Libya, a predominantly Sunni Muslim country of just seven million people, is a bad comparison. The spark for the protests against Gaddafi was organic, coming as part of the wider Arab Spring movement. It then descended into a civil war, fuelled in part by Gulf states backing rival militias. Even Iraq, where the US carried out De-Ba'athification after ousting Hussein's secular government, does not compare to Iran, Gerges told MEE. 'There is a delusion of raw power here,' he told MEE. 'The objectives have changed, but here the goal seems to be to destroy as much as possible in the military infrastructure and see if, as a side effect, you bring about regime change or just chaos.'
Middle East Eye
a day ago
- Politics
- Middle East Eye
Iran's medics fear 'another Gaza' as Israeli strikes overwhelm hospitals
Even as thousands of Iranians attempt to flee the capital Tehran in the wake of Israel's bombardment, many of those working in essential services have been forced to remain. Healthcare workers, working in a sector already battered by years of US sanctions, face a particular struggle to cope with the hundreds being killed and wounded on a daily basis. Golnaz, a 34-year-old woman living in Tehran with her husband Keyvan, dreads the sound of explosions getting closer and closer. "There's barely an hour without an explosion nearby. Every time, I look at my husband and ask, 'do you think we'll survive this?'" she told Middle East Eye. Golnaz and Keyvan have no choice but to stay - Keyvan, 39, is a nurse and has to show up for work every day. New MEE newsletter: Jerusalem Dispatch Sign up to get the latest insights and analysis on Israel-Palestine, alongside Turkey Unpacked and other MEE newsletters 'There's every kind of injury,' he said. 'Children, teenagers, adults, elderly… and the number just keeps rising every day.' He said the casualties so far have been 90 percent civilian. "The hospital is in a state of chaos," he said. "We're not short on staff yet, and we still have medical supplies and equipment, but there's a growing sense of psychological distress among both the medical team and the people. Everyone is anxious about what might happen next." Imitating Gaza? While Israel has claimed to be only targeting military sites, people in Tehran tell a different story. Afshin lost both his wife and young child in the strikes, which have so far killed at least 585 people according to rights groups. "When I left home that morning, I had no idea it would be the last time I'd see them. I was at work when I saw the news - Sohrevardi Street in central Tehran had been bombed," he said. "I immediately tried calling my wife, but no one answered. I rushed home as fast as I could, only to find that our apartment was now just a pile of rubble." Smoke plumes billow following an overnight Israeli strike on Tehran on 17 June 2025 (Atta Kenare / AFP) In 2018, US President Donald Trump unilaterally out of the nuclear deal signed by his predecessor Barack Obama and reimposed sanctions on Iran under the principle of "maximum pressure" against the Islamic Republic. Although there were ostensible exemption for humanitarian goods, rights groups said the sanctions heavily restricted Iran's ability to finance payment for essential medical goods. Last year the Iranian parliament's health committee said Iran faced shortages in as many as 300 medicines. Treatments for cancer, immunodeficiency disorders, multiple sclerosis, haemophilia and mental illnesses were among those hardest hit. 'Israel has shown time and again that it's willing to commit any crime, but then wraps it in a polished narrative to manipulate public opinion' - Keyvan, nurse in Tehran Though part of the blame has been levelled at the government over allegations of corruption and mismanagement, the ongoing pressure by the sanctions regime has played a major role. A total of $6bn in Iranian assets earmarked for humanitarian use - unfrozen and transferred to Qatar after a prisoner swap in 2023 - have been held up over Iran's alleged support for Hamas in Israel's war on Gaza. Keyvan said he feared Israel would repeat across Iran the kind of attacks that had been inflicted in Gaza, which have obliterated the enclave's healthcare system. He pointed to an attack on Farabi Hospital in Kermanshah on Monday. "Israel has shown time and again that it's willing to commit any crime, but then wraps it in a polished narrative to manipulate public opinion," he said. "What we witnessed in Gaza - the suffering of doctors and nurses - was a tragedy for all of us. We are colleagues across the world." Tehran exodus The Israeli military has been posting warnings on social media, advising residents of certain neighbourhoods to evacuate within hours or risk losing their lives, echoing similar actions in Lebanon and Gaza. But with war-time conditions and unstable internet access, many Tehran residents are unable to even see these warnings. 'I call on doctors and nurses everywhere to put themselves in our shoes and speak out' - Keyvan, nurse Meanwhile, the rush to leave has caused massive gridlock on highways heading out of the city in every direction. Mahsa and her husband Mehdi were initially hesitant to leave but finally decided on Tuesday to drive to Pardis, a small town near Tehran. 'My parents live there,' she said. 'So we decided to go stay with them. But it took us six hours to drive just 48 kilometers. The traffic was so horrible we honestly wanted to park the car on the highway and just sleep there.' Some Iranians critical of the Islamic Republic had hoped that Israel's strikes would only target government leaders. But many now feel abandoned and betrayed. "Netanyahu kept saying in speeches and interviews that they had nothing against the people of Iran, that they just wanted to go after regime officials,' said 31-year old Ali. Israeli attacks reawaken Gulf war trauma as Iranians attempt to flee Tehran Read More » 'I believed that - many of us did. But what I see now are residential buildings, offices, and hospitals being hit. I feel like we were lied to. He wants to turn us into another Beirut, another Gaza.' Iranians don't know how long the war will last. But many of them are just as angry at their own government as they are at Israel - for failing to protect them. A country that hasn't seen full-scale war in decades is now burning, and no one knows how far this fire will spread. As Keyvan and his wife settle down in Tehran for the long haul, he called for the world not to lose sight of medical workers like himself. "I call on doctors and nurses everywhere to put themselves in our shoes and speak out, so Israel cannot bring the same disaster it brought upon Gaza's medical staff to us here in Iran," he said.
