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Europe Today: Tension is rising in Iran
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Tune in to Euronews' new flagship morning programme, Europe Today, at 8 am Brussels time. In just 20 minutes, we bring you up to speed on the biggest news of the day.
READ MORE : http://www.euronews.com/2026/02/02/europe-today-tension-is-rising-in-iran
Subscribe to our channel. Euronews is available on Dailymotion in 12 languages
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NewsTranscript
00:00Good morning. It is Monday the 2nd of February. I'm Maeve McMahon and this is Europe Today.
00:22Your daily fix of European news and analysis live here on Euronews.
00:27Coming up, Iran has declared the armies of European countries terrorist groups after the EU last Thursday agreed to list the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist organisation.
00:39During a session in Tehran, lawmakers wore IRGC uniforms and chanted slogans including, quote,
00:45Death to America and, quote, Shame on you Europe.
00:49Meanwhile, calls are growing inside Iran for an inquiry into the number of people killed during recent protests, which were met with a violent crackdown.
00:57Let's get up to speed with Euronews' Stefan Kobe, who's following the situation for us.
01:02Good morning, Stefan.
01:02Good morning, Maeve.
01:03Tell us, what are the consequences of this going forward?
01:06Well, there are no immediate practical consequences.
01:09This was a rather symbolic move by the Iranian government that will certainly not scare the bejesus out of European governments.
01:18It was designed to impress a domestic Iranian audience.
01:21And just the way it was delivered, it wasn't just a press release or an answer to a question in a press conference.
01:27It was very publicly delivered during a session of the Iranian parliament and the speaker of the Iranian parliament delivered this, what he thought was a stern warning to Europeans.
01:39Let's have a listen.
01:39Armies of European countries are considered terrorist groups, and the European Union is responsible for the consequences of this decision.
01:52By seeking to strike at the guard, which itself has been the greatest barrier to the spread of terrorism to Europe, Europeans have in fact shoot themselves in the foot.
02:03And once again, through blind obedience to the Americans, decided against the interests of their own people.
02:14So even if you don't speak Farsi, this was a very fiery speech here, as I said, designed to impress the Iranian public.
02:22If we talk about consequences, I mean, not even the declaration of the Iranian Revolution Guard as a terrorist organization by the Europeans will have, you know, profound consequences.
02:35It will have an asset freeze, a travel ban, these kinds of things that are already in place as part of the larger sanction regime that the Europeans have slept on Iran many years ago.
02:48And meanwhile, Stefan, bring us up to speed on the diplomatic efforts over the weekend to cool down the situation.
02:54Well, absolutely.
02:57There was a very intense diplomatic activity over the weekend.
03:01Why is that so?
03:02Because of the strong military buildup by the United States.
03:05This is the reason here Donald Trump has stepped up his rhetoric last week.
03:10He has sent naval units to the Persian Gulf.
03:15There are now at least 10 big warships, according to the U.S. Navy, in the region.
03:22And he said during the weekend that, yes, there might be a way to negotiate peacefully, to have a diplomatic solution to this.
03:32And everybody in the region is hoping for that this will happen.
03:36The Qatari prime minister was in Tehran on the weekend.
03:40There was a telephone call between the Egyptian president with his Iranian counterpart.
03:44So all these mediators try to bring the U.S. and Iran closer together to avoid a military strike, which President Donald Trump is still contemplating, although he doesn't say so.
03:58The big question for us is here, does Iran, as they have announced, does Iran have the capacity, the military capacity to strike back?
04:09I mean, they have rebuilt their missile arsenal since last year's short war against Israel.
04:16We're a little in the dark here, whether they do have the capacity to strike the U.S.
04:21And of course, the U.S. is now very much present in the region.
04:25And the more you expose yourself, the more you sort of invite a counterattack.
04:30So this is going to be a tricky question for the days and weeks ahead.
04:33OK, Stefan Koby, we're keeping, of course, a very close eye on that here at Uranus.
04:37Thank you so much for that update.
04:39Well, now, coming up, we'll be joined by Ignacy Cimczewski, the State Secretary at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Poland, responsible for EU affairs.
04:49Ignacy Cimczewski oversees Polish interests in the European Union and is actually in Paris today for talks with the OECD.
04:56So we can bring him in, in fact, for there.
04:57Good morning.
04:58Thank you so much for speaking to us.
05:00First, your reaction to the latest statements.
05:04Thank you for having me.
05:05Great to have you with us.
05:06Just first, your reaction, please, to the latest statements from Iran that European armies are, quote, terrorist groups.
05:13How would you respond to that?
05:16It's obviously absurd, but it's mainly a propaganda move.
05:20As your colleague said, it doesn't really have any practical implications.
05:23So I don't think this will in any way change our position.
05:27I'm very happy to see the EU united, expressing solidarity with the Iranian people.
05:33It's quite clear.
05:34The actions by the Iranian regime cannot go and answer it.
05:38The European Union just last Thursday putting the Revolutionary Guard as a terrorist organization.
05:43What impact will this have, do you think?
05:45Well, first, it's a travel ban for the whole organization.
05:51So whoever is associated with the organization cannot come to Europe.
05:55Most importantly, it's also an asset freeze.
05:59So whatever money any of the people have in Europe or other jurisdictions, those assets will be frozen.
06:08But again, and I agree with your colleague, this is largely a symbolic action.
06:15We're sending a signal to the Iranian regime that this was too much.
06:21And simply speaking, the government cannot attack its own people.
06:25And how would you feel about a U.S.-led military intervention in Iran if no deal is struck, if the diplomatic efforts do not work?
06:32Well, I think all of us are hoping for de-escalation.
06:39So we're looking at the U.S. efforts right now with hope that this will lead to a sensible agreement.
06:50And from what I've seen, President Trump has announced that the negotiations are promising.
06:56So I'm hoping that we'll see that there is a kind of an agreement that is beneficial for Europe
07:04and that is beneficial for the U.S. and for the world peace, because that's really what's at stake here.
07:11And what about Ukraine?
07:12The talks to end the war have made little progress.
07:14They'll resume, of course, this Wednesday in Abu Dhabi.
07:17Any hope or faith in these talks?
07:18Well, we're looking at those talks with great interests, and we're really hoping that the U.S. will be able to convince Russia
07:28to be more creative in those discussions, I would say.
07:35Russia is not negotiating with a goodwill right now.
07:40So what we see is that they are trying to prolong the discussion,
07:44whereas we strongly believe that Ukraine made a significant effort to find a solution, to find an end to this war.
07:54So the question right now is whether Russia wants to end the war or not.
08:01Our understanding of the situation is that, unfortunately, they want to continue it.
08:06And we've seen this over the last couple of days with Russia targeting civilian infrastructure in Kiev,
08:15with the freezing temperatures around minus 20 in Kiev.
08:21We've seen Russia targeting heat generation, electricity generation.
08:26This is very concerning.
08:29But it's the issue, of course, of the territories, right?
08:32I mean, that is the sticking point.
08:33How will they resolve that issue over territory, over the Donetsk region?
08:39Well, it's Donetsk, it's Donbass.
08:42And obviously, this will be a very difficult conversation for Ukraine.
08:46And it's really up to the Ukrainian people, up to the Ukrainian government to decide what kind of concessions, if any, are they willing to make.
08:55So I don't think it's really up to us to say that Ukraine should do this or that.
09:00Instead, I think we should be saying that Russia, as the aggressor, should be doing this or that.
09:07So we are aware that those discussions will be difficult.
09:10But really, we need to put pressure on Russia, not Ukraine.
09:15And you mentioned, of course, the freezing temperatures in Ukraine.
09:17What is Poland doing to help its neighbor here?
09:20Well, actually, I'm quite happy with the reaction of the Polish people.
09:26And I wanted to thank them for that.
09:30There has really been quite a movement, some charitable collections to collect money for heat and electricity generators.
09:40I think around 2,000 already went from Poland to Ukraine.
09:45And obviously, the Polish government is also sending the equipment as well.
09:51So we've seen Polish people being in solidarity with the Ukrainian people.
09:58I'm very happy to see that.
10:00We are all tired with the war.
10:02That's quite clear.
10:04But at the same time, I'm very happy to see that Polish people absolutely understand who do we need to help right now.
10:10And President Zelenskyy has said he hopes to join the European Union by 2027.
10:16Do you think that's feasible or doable?
10:20Well, the accession process is quite lengthy.
10:24So I think this would be very difficult to see Ukraine joining the EU by 2027.
10:31But I think we are all ambitious.
10:33The EU has repeatedly said that the future of Ukraine is in the EU.
10:41And this date, this agreement to see Ukraine in the EU will be part, hopefully, of the peace agreement.
10:50So I wouldn't really concentrate that much on a date.
10:54I'd concentrate more on the fact of Ukraine joining the EU.
11:00But even if it's not 2027, I think it could be soon.
11:05Okay, State Secretary, thank you so much for joining us live this morning from the French capital.
11:10Well, now it's time to turn our attention to Italy,
11:13where thousands have been gathering to protest against the planned presence of U.S.
11:17Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in the upcoming Winter Olympics starting this Friday.
11:22For more, we can go straight over to the Italian capital and bring in our Rome correspondent, Georgia Landy.
11:28Good morning, Georgia. Thank you so much for joining us.
11:30These protests really seem to be overshadowing the Games.
11:33Fill us in.
11:36Good morning, Maeve.
11:37Well, that's the plan.
11:39As you mentioned, demonstrators took to the streets in Milan last Saturday
11:43after it was confirmed that ICE agents would join the U.S. delegation to the Winter Olympics Games.
11:48Who were these people?
11:49These people were mainly members of Italy's main opposition parties,
11:53residents of Milan, members of AMP organizations,
11:57which commemorate the memory of Italy's partisan resistance during World War II.
12:03In the same way as U.S. protesters, they were blowing whistles, singing Bruce Springsteen songs.
12:09And we also heard from Georgia Meloni, who recently said she finally spoke out,
12:13saying, quote, that it's contradictory that these are the same people
12:17who demand that the U.S. do more to defend Europe.
12:20But we also understand that the main argument behind the protests is the fact that
12:24somehow Meloni's perceived as too accommodating towards the U.S. and U.S. President Donald Trump.
12:30We also know that those ICE agents, according to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security,
12:35would not be carrying out immigration enforcement operations on the ground,
12:39specifically in foreign countries.
12:42But despite all these assurances, the protests continues.
12:45More rallies have already been planned in the next few days.
12:48One in particular is going to take place on the opening day of those games
12:53and a second one the following day.
12:56Italy's Interior Minister is going to address Parliament on the issue on Wednesday.
13:00And just to give you an idea of how global the scale of the protests is,
13:05over the weekend, French tech company Capgemini said that it would sell its U.S. unit
13:13after coming under pressure for selling services to ICE agents,
13:17services that are used, allegedly used, to track people down as part of that large anti-immigration programme.
13:24Okay, Georgia Orlandi, thank you so much for all those updates.
13:28And we've seen as well the International Olympic Committee has admitted it's distracting and, quote,
13:33sad that the build-up to the events has been dominated by the deployment of ICE agents
13:37and also the appearance of the Los Angeles 2028 chair, Casey Wasserman, in the Epstein's files.
13:44You might have noticed this weekend the U.S. Justice Department dropped millions of files
13:48related to the late child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
13:51And some European names have surfaced too.
13:53For more on this story, let's bring in Euronews' Alice Tidy.
13:57Good morning.
13:57Good morning.
13:58So just fill us in on the European angle here to these Epstein files.
14:01Yes, so we had two political resignations this weekend over this release,
14:05this latest release from the U.S. Department of Justice.
14:08The first one was in Slovakia, actually, where the Miroslav Vlatchak,
14:12the National Security Advisor of Prime Minister Robert Fizzo, resigned.
14:17So he had previously been Foreign Affairs Minister.
14:19He had also previously been an EU special envoy to the Western Balkans.
14:23And what the files, the latest files show, is a text exchange that he had in 2008 with Epstein
14:30prior to a meeting, actually, with Russian Foreign Affairs Minister Sergei Lavrov,
14:33in which the two men discuss women.
14:36And they also discuss a picture that Epstein shared, but that was not included in the documents
14:42to which Laptak replied, why am I not invited to these games?
14:46So pretty damning.
14:49And then the second resignation was in the U.K. from Lord Peter Mandelson.
14:53He resigned from the Labour Party.
14:56Mandelson had been Cabinet Minister under two Labour government.
14:59He had also been recently the British ambassador to the U.S.,
15:02a position he actually held for less than a year before being sacked
15:05following the release of the first batch of documents related to Epstein.
15:09These latest documents show, suggest, sorry, that he had received money from Epstein.
15:17So it's important to note, though, that this is not actually proof of wrongdoing,
15:23but that basically any link to Epstein is now proving radioactive for political...
15:29And indeed, as we're seeing resignations already, it's just Monday morning, Alice.
15:34And just briefly, not just political appointees here, but also the royal family.
15:39Yes, indeed.
15:39More embarrassment for the British royal family because Andrew Mountbatten-Windsall,
15:45King Charles's brother, is once again mentioned in those files.
15:47These files show emails exchanged between the two men in 2010 and 2011.
15:54It also includes a picture of Andrew kneeling on all fours over a female lying on the floor.
16:01Again, not proof of any wrongdoing, but the issue here is that Andrew had previously said
16:06that he had cut off all contact with Epstein by that point.
16:11So this shows that this is not true.
16:13And then also included in the files was the Norwegian crown princess, Mette Marit,
16:21who had a friendship with Epstein from 2011 to 2014.
16:26She's released a statement over the weekend saying that she deeply regrets that friendship
16:30and that she exercised poor judgment.
16:33Yes, that's the latest for the royal family is related to Epstein.
16:36Fascinating revelations inside there in the Epstein files that were released this weekend.
16:40You can take a closer look to all those details on euronews.com.
16:44But Alice Tidy, thank you so much for joining us live here this morning.
16:48And as we mentioned earlier, the next round of US-led talks on Ukraine
16:52will take place this Wednesday and Thursday over in Abu Dhabi.
16:55So the world's media attention will be on them.
16:58But of course, the more these talks drag on, the more locals on the ground are suffering.
17:02Our Jakob Yanis takes a look.
17:03Can you imagine starting your week in minus 20 degrees?
17:10Here in Brussels, a power cut is just an inconvenience.
17:14However, in Kiev right now, it is a survival threat.
17:18While Western Europe enjoys a mild winter, Ukraine is freezing.
17:23Temperatures have plunged to minus 20.
17:26And this extreme weather has become a weapon just as powerful as any missile.
17:33When the power goes out at these temperatures, it's not just the lights that die.
17:39Without electricity, the water pumps stop working, cutting off water supply.
17:44And without heat, the pipes inside buildings freeze and burst,
17:48causing long-term damage that can't be fixed until spring.
17:53And electric heaters.
17:54They are useless if there is no grid to power them.
17:57And in this war, the energy grid has effectively become the fourth front.
18:03Ukraine's system is battered.
18:05This is the result of Russia's campaign targeting critical infrastructure.
18:10And the damage is now so severe that even without a new missile strike,
18:15civilians are fighting a daily battle just to survive the cold.
18:18The EU is sending Ukrainians hundreds of emergency power generators.
18:25And Brussels is declaring it will not let Russia freeze Ukraine.
18:30And it's not only governments that are helping,
18:32as European NGOs and volunteers are also supporting the most vulnerable on the ground.
18:38But generators cannot stop missiles.
18:41And according to Kiev, in January alone, Russia launched 6,000 drones and over 5,000 bombs,
18:49targeting Ukraine's energy and railway infrastructure.
18:53And the cold, as well as Russian attacks, show no signs of ending soon.
18:58Jakob Yanis reporting for us there.
19:05And for more on the ongoing situation in Ukraine or on any of the stories we're covering for you today
19:10here on Europe Today, do visit euronews.com or download our app.
19:15You can also take a look at all our social media sites and join us there or DM if you'd like to get in touch.
19:20But that does bring this edition of Europe Today to an end this Monday.
19:23Thank you so much for your company.
19:25We'll be back again tomorrow morning, bright and early, with more European news and analysis.
19:30In the meantime, take care and see you soon on Euronews.
19:55Euronews.
20:04Euronews.
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