European Union (EU) foreign ministers are meeting today by videoconference to discuss the worsening tensions in the Middle East following the large-scale Iranian attack on Isreal.
The meeting, which will be attended by Portuguese Foreign Minister Paulo Rangel, will take place entirely by videoconference and has been called by the EU’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Josep Borrell.
The leaders will meet at 17:00 local time (16:00 in Lisbon).
The main topic is the worsening tensions in the Middle East, after an “unprecedented” escalation, as echoed by several European ministers in the days following Tehran’s retaliation against Israel.
Iran launched an attack on Israel on Saturday night and early Sunday morning, using more than 300 drones (unmanned aerial devices), cruise and ballistic missiles, the vast majority of which were intercepted, according to the Israeli army.
Tehran justified the attack as a measure of self-defense, arguing that the military action was a response to “the Zionist regime’s aggression” against Iranian diplomatic facilities in Damascus (Syria), which took place on April 1 and resulted in the deaths of seven members of the Revolutionary Guard and six Syrian citizens.
The Western international community has strongly condemned Iran’s attack on Israel, calling for maximum restraint in order to avoid an escalation of violence in the Middle East, a region already highly unstable due to the war that has been going on for more than six months between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
