Today the meeting of the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the E.U. – The war in Ukraine and the new sanctions on Iran are on the agenda

The EU foreign ministers will discuss today the strengthening of Ukraine’s anti-aircraft defense and the extension of sanctions against Iran. in the context of the meeting they will have in Luxembourg. And the subject of the war in Sudan expected to be discussed at this meeting. However, attention will be focused on the conflicts taking place on the eastern and southern doorstep of the EU, in Ukraine and in the Middle East.

While Russia has escalated airstrikes against Ukrainian energy infrastructure and other targets, European governments are being pressured to supply Kiev with air defense systems, notably the US-made Patriot.

Kiev secured a boost over the weekend as the House of Representatives approved a $60 billion-plus funding package.

However, EU foreign policy chief Giuseppe Borrell and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg are urging European countries to step up their own efforts to supply Ukraine with weapons, especially air defense systems.

After the teleconference that the NATO Defense Ministers had on Friday with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, the NATO Secretary General stated that he expects that there will be relevant announcements soon.

“NATO has mapped the existing capabilities across the alliance and there are systems that can be deployed to Ukraine,” the Norwegian insisted.

“In addition to the Patriot, there are other weapons that the allies can procure, including the (French system) SAMP/T,” he added.

As of this stage, Germany is the only EU country that has pledged to send additional Patriot systems to Ukraine following calls from Kiev.

The Foreign Ministers’ Summit will also be attended by European defense ministers and their Ukrainian counterparts, before attention turns to the crisis in the Middle East, triggered by the Hamas attack on southern Israel on October 7.

The sanctions

A deal will be sought on how far the European Union should go in sanctions against Tehran following last weekend’s Iranian attack on Israel.

The EU has already implemented various sanctions against Iran, citing its proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, human rights violations and the supply of UAVs to Russia.

The European Council decided last week to impose new sanctions on the Islamic Republic. More specifically, many EU countries are calling for the existing drone-related sanctions regime to be expanded to include missiles and arms transfers to forces close to Tehran in the Middle East.

Member states are specifically debating whether and to what extent new sanctions related to missile production should be imposed, according to diplomatic sources.

In addition, some countries are pushing for the EU to find a way to designate the Revolutionary Guards, Iran’s elite military, as a terrorist organization.

But officials note that the legal basis for this step has not yet been found and they are not sure that it would be supported by all member states.