Top EU diplomat says banning trade from Israeli settlements would be a ‘principled stance’
Wire desk byline Sourced from Xinhua, Dawn, Arab News, Anadolu and Minute Mirror. Translated and abridged by the GSRRA Desk.
European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas speaks with the media as she arrives for a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brussels, July 13, 2026. (Marius Burgelman/AP)
The European Union’s foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas says a decision from her bloc to ban trade with Israeli settlements would be the principled stance.
Kallas argues in an interview with The Irish Times that the EU should treat the settlements the same way it has treated Ukraine’s Crimea since it was occupied by Russia.
“The question is what do we do about this? If we take the example when Crimea was occupied, then it was very clear: it’s illegal, we don’t recognize this, which means that we stop the trade with any products that come from Crimea,” Kallas says. Promoted: Theatron Hotel and Residences – Luxury Jerusalem Residences with Five-Star Hotel AmenitiesKeep Watching
“We should have the same principled stance – you know this is illegal, everybody agrees – so we should stop trading with Occupied [Palestinian] Territories,” she says.
Kallas acknowledges that adopting a ban on imports of goods from the settlements would require a sizable majority of member states, and it’s unclear whether such support exists, given potential opposition from Slovenia, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Germany.
“We have leverage when we can take decisions… If it is clear that we are divided, then also you know we are not taken seriously,” Kallas says.
Reference Link:- https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/top-eu-diplomat-says-banning-trade-from-israeli-settlements-would-be-principled-stance/
Zamir Ahmed Awan is the founder and Chair of the Global Silk Route Research Alliance, a think tank in Islamabad. He studied engineering at Shanghai University in the 1980s, and years later he went back to China as Pakistan's science counsellor in Beijing, from 2010 until 2016, working on science and higher education cooperation between the two countries.…
