EUROPEAN Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said on Monday (June 8) diplomacy must prevail in the war with Iran after Israel staged strikes on the country’s military targets.
Israel said on Monday it hit a petrochemical plant in Iran's southwest, along with strikes elsewhere on military targets, after U.S. President Donald Trump reportedly told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to refrain from further attacks.
In the first hit on an energy site inside Iran since the April 8 ceasefire.
“There has to be a diplomatic solution and they (US and Iran) have to sit around the table,” Kallas said ahead of a meeting of EU defence ministers in Cyprus.
Kallas said there must be a ceasefire and the opening of the Strait of Hormuz and discussions on Iran’s nuclear program could then follow.
She said sanctions under a framework to expand the criteria of the EU’s Iran sanctions to include those responsible for blocking the strait would be applied on Monday (June 8).
European defence ministers are meeting in Nicosia to discuss further support to Ukraine, European security strategy and maritime security, including the Aspides naval mission.
