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Hello, It’s Friday. I’m Mared Gwyn with your morning newsletter.
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Exclusive: Iran’s Ambassador to the UN in Geneva, Ali Bahreini, has told Euronews that any military base “used to attack Iran”, including those on European territory, could be targeted as the war in the Middle East continues.
“Let me make it clear, our military forces have announced a policy [that] any facility, any base which is used to attack Iran would be a legitimate target for our military force,” Ambassador Bahreini told our correspondent Sasha Vakulina on Thursday.
When asked whether this could include sites located in Europe, Bahreini responded: “We will defend our country according to what we need to make our country secure and to make sure that there is no aggression against our country.”
Bahreini also denied that Iran has attacked civilian sites in the Gulf, accusing the US and Israel of these attacks and saying Tehran only pursues military targets.
“I cannot accept that claim,” Bahreini said when asked by Sasha about Iranian attacks on civilian areas in the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Qatar**.**
“Our military forces have been instructed to exclusively target military bases which are used by the United States against our country,” he said, adding that Iran has sent “a very clear message to our neighbouring countries that we are friends, we belong to the same family”. Watch.
Sasha also spoke to Israel’s opposition leader Yair Lapid, who described the US-Israeli war on Iran as a “just war”, acknowledging consensus on this across the Israeli political spectrum.
“I think I’ve earned the title of the most bitter political rival of Benjamin Netanyahu. But here we are fighting an existential war against a regime that has been spreading terror, that has been trying to develop nuclear weapons in order to use them against Israel, that is developing its ballistic missile operation in order to shower Israel with missiles,” Lapid said.
“In the 21st century, it is not easy to have a war with moral clarity. But here we have a war with moral clarity,” he said. Watch.
As the war enters its 14th day, Euronews’ journalist Jane Witherspoon on the ground in Dubai reports blasts that have left smoke clouds hovering over central parts of the city.
A French soldier has been killed in Iraq’s autonomous Kurdistan region, President Emmanuel Macron has confirmed. Macron previously announced six French soldiers had been injured in an attack against troops involved in counter-terrorism operations.
A rescue operation by the US Central Command is also underway in Iraq after a US military refuelling aircraft crashed in the country. In a statement, the US Central Command said the incident “occurred in friendly airspace” and was “not due to hostile fire or friendly fire.”
With markets still jittery and the cost of Brent crude, the international benchmark for oil, hovering around the $100 per barrel mark, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced last night that Washington will temporarily lift sanctions on Russian oil currently at sea in a bid to rein in global prices.
Bessent described the move as a “narrowly tailored, short-term measure”. Yet it comes days after G7 leaders issued a statement reaffirming their “determination to maintain sanctions against Russia” after an emergency videoconference meeting attended by President Trump.
EU ambassadors seek to renew Russia sanctions as Druzhba dispute drags on
Later today, EU ambassadors will gather in Brussels to try again to renew EU sanctions on Russian individuals and entities after failing to do so on Wednesday, my colleague Jorge Liboreiro writes in to report.
This time, the stakes will be drastically higher: if the sanctions are not renewed by 15 March, more than 2,7000 names, including Vladimir Putin himself, will be automatically released from the blacklist.
Hungary and Slovakia continue to resist the six-month rollover, demanding that a handful of oligarchs be removed as a condition for providing the necessary unanimity. The Slovak demand, involving businessmen Mikhail Fridman and Alisher Usmanov, has proved particularly controversial.
This is not the first time that ambassadors have raced against time. The expectation is that, at one point on Friday, a compromise will be struck to avert the worst-case scenario.
“I’m used to the fact that we always find a solution in the end to move forward, even if it might not always be 100% what we would like to have,” said a senior diplomat. “I’m not convinced that there would be any leader in the union willing to take the burden of being the one responsible for releasing 2,7000 names (from the blacklist).”
Meanwhile, Hungary and Slovakia’s dispute with Ukraine over the disrupted Druzhba pipeline continues.
The European Commission confirmed on Thursday that it had asked Kyiv to allow it to send inspectors to examine the damage on the pipeline, in line with a key demand from Hungary as it maintains a veto on a critical €90 billion loan for Ukraine until the pipeline becomes operational again.
Brussels insists it must first receive Kyiv’s approval before it can determine the mission’s scope and purpose, Jorge reports. The situation is a first for the Commission, which has never carried out an inspection of the sort, and has no legal precedent in an extraordinary spat between Hungary, which accuses Ukraine of sabotage, and Kyiv, which blames Russia.More.
Brussels denies unfair trade practices in response to new US probes
The European Commission on Thursday rejected allegations of industrial overcapacity in its exports to the US, after Trade Representative Jamieson Greer announced fresh investigations into unfair trade practices targeting the EU.
Concern is mounting that the probes under Section 301 are an attempt by the White House to find new legal grounds to impose further tariffs as part of its nationalist trade policy, after the US Supreme Court ruled the measures used by Trump to impose his ‘Liberation Day’ tariffs to be illegal, my colleague Peggy Corlin reports.
“The EU is a market-driven economy with open markets and transparent policies. As such, the EU does not consider itself a contributor to structural excess capacity, but rather a partner in addressing global distortions,” Commission deputy spokesperson Olof Gill said on Thursday.
“We knew US Section 301 investigations were coming,” top EU trade lawmaker Bernd Lange (S&D), who chairs the European Parliament’s trade committee, wrote in response to the probes on X.
“Nevertheless, uncertainty remains. There is still no clear commitment from the US government to uphold the Turnberry commitments,” Lange added, referring to a bilateral trade deal struck last summer during Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen’s trip to US President Donald Trump’s Scotland golf course.
Announcing the probes on Wednesday, Trade Representative Greer alleged that the EU had done “approximately zero percent” of what was agreed in that deal.
It’s casting major doubt over the future of the trade agreement, which is still frozen as the European Parliament delays a crucial vote on its implementation.
Peggy hasthe details.
More from our newsrooms
Could oil prices really reach $200 a barrel as claimed by Iran? The Iranian Revolutionary Guard has repeatedly threatened to push oil prices up to $200 per barrel, leveraging its control over the Strait of Hormuz. But how realistic is this scenario? Quirino Mealha takes a look.
Washington could suspend the Jones Act to curb soaring oil prices. The Trump administration is allegedly set to suspend the Jones Act, a century-old federal maritime law. A waiver would allow foreign tankers to transport cargo between US ports as oil prices remain above $100. Una Hajdari has the details.
Polish President vetoes law unlocking €44bn in EU defence loans. President Nawrocki has vetoed legislation that would have enabled the country to access nearly €44 billion in EU defence loans, escalating a political clash with the government of Prime Minister Donald Tusk over how to finance the country’s defence spending. Anna Weglarczyk has more.
We’re also keeping an eye on
- European Commissioner for trade, Maroš Šefčovič, delivers speech in Stockholm, Sweden
- European Commissioner for crisis management, Hadja Lahbib, delivers speech at the EU Ambassadors’ Conference in Brussels
That’s it for today. Jorge Liboreiro, Sasha Vakulina and Peggy Corlin contributed to this newsletter. Remember to sign up to receive Europe Today in your inbox every weekday morning at 08.30.
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