Kiev should not request the same kind of support that the West provided to West Jerusalem during the Iranian attack because the two situations cannot be compared, EU foreign policy head Josep Borrell has said.

The US, UK and France said they collaborated with the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) on Saturday to shoot down some of the incoming Iranian missiles and drones. Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky has since called on Washington and its allies to do the same for Kiev.

Answering a reporter’s question after Tuesday’s meeting of EU foreign ministers, Borrell said the two situations were “different things that cannot be compared.” 

“Iran’s attacks flew over air bases of the armies of France, the US, the UK and Jordan. They have gone over their bases, which then acted in self-defense,” Borrell noted. “There are no air bases of the UK, or the US, much less Jordan of course, on Ukrainian territory or in the territory Russian missiles fly over. Therefore, the same answer cannot be given because the circumstances are not the same.”

Israel has also spent a lot of time and money to build the Iron Dome air defense system, which the EU couldn’t build overnight in Ukraine “even if we had money in the box,” the Spanish diplomat said. The bloc is nevertheless trying to provide Kiev with additional air defense capabilities, he added. 

When asked if the EU was involved in defending Israel, Borrell said that the bloc was not directly involved, because it is not a state and does not have an army, but some of its members are.

“From that point of view I can say that the Union, or the member states of the Union that have the capabilities to do it, have done it,” he said. “We have participated, of course, in [passing along] the information that the intelligence services had about how imminent the attack was. We were warned, like so many others.”

This has made it possible to mobilize military capabilities – I insist, not of the Union, but of some of the member states that were available in the area and that have actively participated in eliminating what this attack represented for Israel.

Iran launched scores of drones, ballistic and cruise missiles against Israel on Saturday. According to Tehran, the strike was lawful retaliation for the Israeli airstrike on the Iranian consulate in Damascus, Syria earlier this month that killed seven high-ranking officers of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Quds Force.

https://www.rt.com/news/596143-ukraine-israel-different-borrell/

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The EU needs new leadership as the bloc’s current top officials have proven entirely unsuccessful, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has claimed.

Orban made the comments at the European Parliament on Tuesday as part of a public discussion with Former Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki and the leader of the French National Rally party, Fabrice Leggeri.

“Now we have a leadership in the EU with some major projects selected by themselves like green transition, RRF (Recovery and Resilience Facility) policy, migration, war [in Ukraine] and sanctions policy, and they all failed,” Orban said.

“The present leadership of the European Union must go away. And we need new leaders,” the Hungarian prime minister insisted.

Orban said he intends “to come and take over Brussels,” reiterating his earlier warning to “occupy” the EU’s key institutions with his allies in order to bring change to the bloc.

According to the Hungarian leader, the rule of law and conditionality system created by the current EU leadership has “proved to be… an instrument of political blackmailing. If you do not behave as we expect, you do not get the money.”

Hungary has not received “a single penny” from the RRF because European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has openly voiced dissatisfaction with Budapest’s reluctance to accept migrants and its opposition to the bloc’s gender policies, he said.

The EU’s green transition “has failed because it has gone against [the] economic and industrial” interests of the bloc, Orban added. A switch towards climate neutrality should not be “politically motivated,”otherwise “it would destroy the competitiveness of the European economy. That is where we stand today,” he explained.

In contrast to many other EU members, the Hungarian leader has refused to provide arms to Ukraine and has consistently criticized the bloc’s sanctions against Russia over the conflict. According to Orban, the time has come for Brussels to define “what it should do with the issue of the war” in order to find a solution to the crisis and prevent similar ones in the future.

Even goodwill gestures may “cause difficulties for the European economy,” such as the recent protests by farmers in Poland, France, Germany, and other nations partly caused by the preferences given by the EU to Ukrainian food suppliers, he explained.

Orban also insisted that the issue of aid to Kiev should be “separated as much as possible from the issue of Ukraine’s accession to the EU,” formal negotiations for which were approved last year.

https://www.rt.com/news/596099-orban-eu-leadership-hungary/

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Other EU leaders have expressed concern over media reports that Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban may be meeting Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Friday.

Mr Orban - whose country now holds the EU rotating presidency - is the bloc's only head of national government to have kept close ties to the Kremlin following its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

European Council President Charles Michel said Mr Orban had "no mandate to engage with Russia on behalf of the EU", while Polish PM Donald Tusk asked for clarification.

Several media outlets reported about Mr Orban's apparent forthcoming visit, quoting their sources.

The Financial Times said one Hungarian and two EU officials had confirmed media reports that Mr Orban would meet Russia’s president on Friday.

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, a US-government funded media organisation, quoted a Hungarian government source. It also said that Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto would accompany Mr Orban.

Hungary and Russia did not immediately respond to BBC requests for comment.

On Monday, according to AFP news agency, Mr Orban promised "surprising news from surprising places".

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cml29r8d2zxo

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