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“All diplomatic efforts until now were not successful,” Sa’ar said in an interview with the Axel Springer Global Reporters network, of which POLITICO is a member. “They usually use these talks in order to deceive, in order to waste time.” When asked what Iran must do for a negotiated solution to the conflict, he responded: “We are not dealing with negotiations with Iran” and reiterated Trump’s call for “unconditional surrender.”    Sa’ar said the Europeans did not invite him to the Geneva meeting, but he spoke with the French foreign minister about it, and may speak with the German foreign minister…

According to Joller, Kluge’s Russia visit “risks legitimizing a regime that deliberately targets the very values WHO is meant to defend.” Joller was reacting to a post from Kluge, who is regional director of WHO Europe, pictured shaking hands with Lavrov alongside a list of the topics they had discussed: from the pandemic deal to HIV prevention, as well as the obligation not to attack health care facilities. In a separate post Kluge shared that he’d also chaired a meeting on HIV in Moscow, alongside the country’s Deputy Health Minister Andrey Plutnitskiy. Kluge defended his visit to Russia, telling POLITICO…

Crosetto’s comments come ahead of the NATO leaders’ summit in The Hague next week, where the alliance is likely to agree on a higher spending target of 5 percent of GDP to placate U.S. President Donald Trump. Among the leaders attending is Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. At a meeting in Rome earlier this month with NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte, her office “reaffirmed support for Ukraine and the Atlantic Alliance’s role as an essential pillar for collective defence.” But according to Crosetto, NATO has failed in its original mission. “If NATO was created to guarantee peace and mutual defense, it…

The government stressed that it did not reflect a perceived change to the current situation with Israel and Iran. The move came as the U.K. — which has been urging the Trump administration to focus on negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program rather than joining Israel’s military offensive — announced plans for charter flights to evacuate British nationals from the Israeli capital. “The UK will provide charter flights for British nationals from Tel Aviv when airspace reopens,” said Foreign Secretary David Lammy in a post on X. “Register your presence to receive further guidance. Flights will be available based on the…

“The debate on Pfizergate, we protected her from it, if this continues like this, we will stop protecting her,” a senior Renew official said. The Socialists and liberals could “stop playing the game and making deals in other files with EPP,” effectively blocking the EU’s legislative process, they added. “The problem now is that the Commission is also answering to the alternative right-wing majority, not the centrist platform,” the official said. A spokesperson for the EPP said it welcomed the Commission’s announcement, claiming that the current text under negotiation would have “led to a bureaucratic nightmare for companies.” As well…

By contrast, he noted, business sentiment suggested very strongly that the economy is “on the brink of a recession.” Putin pointed to statistics showing that gross domestic product is still growing — by 1.5 percent in the first four months of the year. However, analysts have pointed out that that is due entirely to ever-higher volumes of output from the defense sector to fight the war in Ukraine. Civil sectors of the economy have slowed sharply, as the government has ended various subsidy programs over the past year, notably for residential mortgages. The government is being squeezed harder than at…

The EU-Israel Association Agreement establishes close relations between the bloc and the Middle Eastern nation, governing cooperation in key industries and bilateral trade. While tearing up the pact entirely would require unanimous support from all 27 EU member countries, four officials confirmed to POLITICO that interim measures, such as paring back trade ties, are being considered and could be passed by a qualified majority of countries. “In response to the terrorist attacks of 7 October 2023, Israel launched an intense military campaign, involving the use of weapons with wide are effects in densely-populated areas, and severe restrictions on the entry…

But sanctioned entities remained part of Facebook’s revenue redistribution program, meaning they could potentially share in the platform’s ad revenue, says nonprofit WHAT TO FIX, which focuses on the accountability of internet platforms. The campaign group said it could not ascertain whether funds were exchanged between Meta and the sanctioned entities as part of the program, but said that its findings “raise important questions regarding Meta’s compliance with EU sanctions.” A Meta spokesperson responded: “Being listed on our Partner-Publisher list is not itself evidence that an account has received payouts, and any party on that list is still subject to…

Israel’s actions in the Gaza Strip indicate a breach of the human rights provisions contained in its Association Agreement with the European Union, a highly anticipated review from the bloc’s diplomatic service has found, citing a collection of findings by independent international organisations. The breach stems from Israel’s war on Gaza and the stringent conditions applied to the deliveries of humanitarian aid, which have stoked fears of widespread famine among Palestinians living in the densely populated enclave. It also covers Israel’s decades-long occupation of the West Bank, where settlers have engaged in violent acts.Europeans have reacted with shock and fury…

Still, Democratic Bulgaria is itself also fully alive to public fears over prices and has proposed a bill that would improve price transparency, effectively compelling big retail business to publish the price of their products on a daily basis. To avoid a spike in inflation, EU economy commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis also supported closely monitoring prices, calling for the “nam[ing] and sham[ing]” of businesses that use euro accession as an excuse to raise prices. More broadly, the EU is disputing the claims that eurozone accession will lead to substantially higher prices in the medium-term. “In recent cases [of eurozone accession], inflation has been minor,…