The shipment of Leopard tanks to Ukraine is on the table, the foreign ministers of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania have heated up the atmosphere by asking the German government on their social networks this Saturday to send “immediately” this material to assist the Ukrainian Army against the Russian invasion in the face of the suspicion exhibited by Berlin. This question will be one of the main axes in the meeting tomorrow Monday that will be held by the foreign ministers of the European Union. In said meeting they will seek to give the green light to a new package of 500 million euros from the fund for the supply of arms to the country presided over by Volodimir Zelenski.
Faced with the majority intention of the Member States to approve a new round of 500 million, the seventh since the start of the war, to pay for the shipment of arms to Ukraine, Hungary threatens to veto the decision, in a new open front in its rejection to support measures for Ukraine and to increase pressure on Russia.
“We are looking for a political agreement this Monday, if not then it will happen sooner rather than later,” said a senior EU official, downplaying the possible blockade of Hungary. This new plot will raise to 3,500 million the funds made available to the EU to provide lethal material to kyiv in the context of the war, and is part of the more than 11,000 million euros that Europe offered in military support to Ukraine.
In addition, the High Representative of the EU for Foreign Policy, Josep Borrell, hopes to receive the go-ahead from the Twenty-seven to finance the training mission of Ukrainian soldiers on European soil with 45 million. With an eye on reaching an agreement in February, the Twenty-seven will continue talks on the tenth package of sanctions against Moscow, with the first contacts over the weekend.
However, diplomatic sources expect a first “substantial” proposal from the European Commission. “It is not a secret that some countries already want the tenth package,” they have explained, pointing out that the next steps may be to extend the cap on the price of oil to include derivative products.
sanctions against Iran
Masha Amini. The EU is concerned about the spiral of violence unleashed by Tehran and that is why it used the fifth round of consecutive sanctions against the Iranian authorities, adding 37 people responsible for the persecution of protesters to its ‘black list’.
On the table will be the debate on designating the Iranian revolutionary guard as a terrorist organization for the EU, an issue that countries like Germany are promoting, but that does not arouse the consensus of the Twenty-seven and on which there is no formal proposal. Tehran has threatened that this step will bring “devastating consequences” for the nuclear agreement that the EU has been seeking to revive for months, trying to get the United States to return to the pact and Iran to commit to its full compliance.
Despite defending the independence of the EU when it comes to responding to Iran’s actions, both internally and in its military support for Russia, the senior European official has opined that “it is not a good idea” to add the revolutionary guard They will go on the terrorist list, stating that it “prevents progress on other issues” with Tehran.
Facing the new situation in Venezuela
During the meeting of foreign ministers, Borrell also opened a debate on the new situation that is opening up in Venezuela, where the EU aspires to recalibrate its position taking into account changes at the regional and national level, after the dismissal of Juan Guaidó as president. ‘in charge’ and the greater presence of the Nicolás Maduro regime in the international sphere.
Diplomatic sources explain that the idea is to revive the contact group with Venezuela to resume relations with Caracas and try to influence a democratic solution to the crisis.
