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The wars in Iran and Ukraine are “very much interlinked” by Russia, High Representative Kaja Kallas warned on Thursday, calling on the United States to ramp up economic pressure on the Kremlin as it benefits from rising oil prices due to the conflict.
Moscow is reportedly providing Tehran, a long-standing ally, with drones and intelligence services to help target American military assets in the Middle East. The administration of President Donald Trump has largely avoided blaming Russia.
“We see that Russia is helping Iran with intelligence to target Americans, to kill Americans, and Russia is also supporting Iran now with the drones so that they can attack neighbouring countries and also US military bases,” Kallas said as she headed into a G7 meeting of foreign affairs ministers in Abbaye des Vaux de Cernay, France.
“These wars are very much interlinked. So if America wants the war in the Middle East to stop (and) Iran to stop attacking them, they should also put the pressure on Russia so that they are not able to help them in this,” she added.
Kallas urged the US, Israel and Iran to “sit down” and find a negotiated solution, or an “off-ramp”, as she put it, that could bring the war to a quick end. Washington and Tehran have sentconflicting messages about a potential settlement, sowing confusion.
Trump insisted Thursday that Iran is “begging” for a deal, after moving an ultimatum for Tehran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz or face the “obliteration” of its power plants to Friday.
Kallas stressed that Europe would join a coalition to secure the waterway carrying one fifth of the global oil production only “after the cessation of hostilities”.
“We need an exit, not an escalation,” she said. “There has to be a diplomatic solution so that this region will come out of it stronger and more peaceful.”
Her plea comes as the White House, in a bid to calm rattled energy markets, eases sanctions on both Iranian and Russian oil, causing dismay among Europeans.
The dramatic rise in oil prices has reversed the downward trend that weighed down the Russian economy. Now, Moscow is emerging as a winner from the global energy chaos.
Meanwhile, the intensity of the Middle East war has drastically upended the global demand for weapons and ammunition, which threatens to complicate Ukraine’s access to the air defence systems it needs to repel incoming Russian fire.
“We can’t forget about Ukraine,” Kallas said.
In a new interview with Reuters, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the Trump administration had made security guarantees conditional on Kyiv ceding the entire Donbas to Moscow. The region, which is partially occupied, includes heavily fortified cities that Ukraine needs to contain the Russian advance.
“President Trump, unfortunately, in my opinion, still chooses a strategy to put more pressure on the Ukrainian side,” Zelenskyy said.
Asked about Zelenskyy’s remarks, Kallas warned the US against giving Russia something that it has failed to conquer on the battlefield.
“This is clearly the wrong approach. It is, of course, the Russian playbook of negotiations,” she said. “This is the trap that we should not walk into.”
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