00:00Donald Trump has threatened to cut off all trade with Spain,
00:05calling the fellow NATO member a, quote, terrible ally.
00:10France will facilitate the evacuation of its vulnerable nationals in the Middle East,
00:15the French minister of Foreign Affairs said on Tuesday.
00:20The Russian central bank has filed a lawsuit against the European Union
00:24for the indefinite immobilization of its sovereign assets.
00:30European participation in the U.S.-Israel military operation against Iran
00:35is certainly a possibility, a former CIA director told Euronews.
00:41Donald Trump says he wants to cut off all trade with Spain,
00:45calling the country a terrible ally.
00:49Comments came during a meeting at the White House on Tuesday
00:52with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz.
00:55President Donald Trump made clear he was not happy at Spain
00:58for refusing to increase its NATO defense spending from 2% to 5% of GDP,
01:04saying Madrid is not doing enough to meet alliance expectations.
01:09He also pointed to a recent ruling by the Supreme Court of the United States,
01:15arguing it gives him broad authority to impose tariffs
01:18and potentially an embargo on Spain.
01:31The president further criticized Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez
01:36for refusing to allow U.S. aircraft to use Spanish bases for potential strikes on Iran.
01:43Trump also defended U.S.-Israeli military action on Iran,
01:48claiming the strikes had knocked out much of the country's naval and air capabilities.
01:53He insisted the United States acted preemptively
01:56and denied that Israel pressured him into launching the attack.
02:04The Greek Navy frigates Kimon and Psara have been sailing towards Cyprus since Monday evening
02:09as part of efforts to bolster the island's air defenses.
02:12In addition, four Greek F-16 fighter jets are already stationed at Paphos Airport.
02:18Greek Defense Minister Nikos Dendias
02:20and Chief of the Hellenic National Defense General Staff,
02:23Dmitrys Huppi, are in Cyprus to evaluate the threat.
02:26These moves are part of the activation of the Greece-Cyprus Joint Defense Doctrine,
02:31confirming that Athens and Nicosia are operating with a common strategic plan in case of a threat.
02:37Concerns were raised on Tuesday morning in Akrotiri
02:39when an alarm was sounded for an imminent attack on the British base,
02:43but a few minutes later the message was retracted,
02:46with officials confirming it was a mistake.
02:48The Cypriot News Agency reported that France is sending anti-missile and anti-drone systems
02:53and at least one frigate to the Mediterranean island.
02:57Meanwhile, Germany is reportedly considering similar action
03:01following a phone conversation between Chancellor Friedrich Mertz
03:04and Cypriot President Christodoulides.
03:06Greek media reported that U.S.-made Patriot missile defense system batteries
03:11are being transported to Karpathos to enhance defenses.
03:16Qatar issued a stern warning to Iran on Tuesday,
03:19saying it has crossed every red line and its attacks will not go without a response,
03:24as it also poses a, quote,
03:26grave danger to international economies.
03:29Speaking to reporters, Qatar's foreign ministry says Iran did not just target military facilities,
03:34but the entire Qatari territory, including its Doha airport and natural gas facilities.
03:39Qatar also shot down two Iranian fighter jets who entered its airspace on Monday.
03:44Red lines have already been crossed.
03:46The attack on our sovereignty, the blatant attack on our people,
03:51on the security and safety of our nation,
03:54has already crossed every possible red line.
03:57And therefore, we have taken all possible measures
03:59and we reserve the right to retaliate.
04:02Dr. Majid Al-Ansari says there are currently no open lines of communication with Iran,
04:06and he made it clear that retaliation is firmly on the table.
04:09He also stressed that Qatar is completely prepared with enough air defense missiles
04:13to deal with any attack.
04:15The attacks like these will not go unanswered and cannot go unanswered.
04:20And when Iran struck Qatar the first time in the span of the 12-day war,
04:27we said very clearly at that time that this will merit retaliation from outside
04:31and we reserve the right to retaliate.
04:33The only reason we did not retaliate at that time
04:34was because we prioritized regional security
04:37and the possibility of a ceasefire.
04:40But the fact that this is happening again right now
04:42and that our sovereignty has been challenged in this way
04:47means that this cannot go unanswered another time.
04:52Dr. Al-Ansari also says Iran's attack on Qatar's LNG facilities
04:56forced their temporary closure
04:58and posed a grave danger to international economies.
05:01Meanwhile, Qatar's airspace remains closed.
05:03More than 8,000 transit passengers are currently stranded
05:06and are being hosted inside the country.
05:09Adil Halim, Euronews, Doha.
05:16France will facilitate the evacuation of its vulnerable nationals in the Middle East,
05:21French Minister of Foreign Affairs Jean-Noël Barraud declared on Tuesday.
05:26In the meantime, Iran's attacks spread across the Middle East,
05:29with Tehran firing missiles and allied militias joining retaliation against Israeli
05:35and dual strikes on the Islamic Republic.
05:38400,000 French nationals are present in the 13 countries affected by the war against Iran,
05:44most of them permanent residents with dual nationality.
05:47Nous nous préparons à des affrêtements de vols
05:54pour que les personnes les plus vulnérables,
05:56les personnes qui méritent d'être accompagnées,
05:58puissent, le cas échéant, en bénéficient.
06:00Many countries affected by the war have closed their airspace,
06:03complicating repatriations.
06:05Unlike his American counterparts,
06:07the French Minister did not call for the immediate return of all French nationals.
06:15The United States and Israel's unilateral action in Iran
06:19doesn't have backing from the United Nations Charter.
06:22Spain's Foreign Minister, José Manuel Alvarez,
06:24has told Euronews flagship programme Europe Today.
06:27He also condemned Iran's retaliatory strikes
06:30against several other nations in the Middle East.
06:32We see today that the war is spreading
06:35in the whole region in the Middle East.
06:37There are unjustified attacks from Iran
06:40to many countries in the Middle East
06:42that we clearly condemn.
06:45Today we are seeing the extension of the war to Lebanon.
06:49And the instability in the region
06:52is something that really worries us.
06:54He added that as the conflict spills over into the wider region,
06:58Spain and the European Union must be a voice of reason,
07:02a voice that tries to put some balance in what's happening,
07:04that speaks of de-escalation and going back to diplomacy and negotiation.
07:09Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez
07:11is the only EU leaders to have openly condemned
07:14Saturday's US-Israeli strikes on Iran,
07:17which have triggered a spiraling conflict in the region.
07:23The Russian Central Bank has filed a lawsuit
07:26against the European Union
07:27for the indefinite immobilisation of its sovereign assets,
07:31which the bloc approved in a bid to strengthen its leverage
07:34in ongoing talks to end the war in Ukraine.
07:37The legal action was submitted to the EU's general court
07:40in Luxembourg last Friday,
07:42but it was announced on Tuesday morning
07:44in a short press release.
07:46The European Commission dismissed the lawsuit.
07:48This claim comes in a context of a growing number
07:53of Russian legal challenges
07:55concerning our support measures for Ukraine.
07:57Therefore, we are, of course, not surprised.
08:01As regards our position,
08:02we are fully confident about the legality of this regulation
08:06and its compatibility with EU law and international law.
08:10The assets are worth about 210 billion euros across the bloc.
08:14The majority, 185 billion euros,
08:18is held at Euroclear,
08:19a Brussels-based depository already sued by Moscow.
08:23The regulation that is being challenged
08:25was agreed by member states in December
08:28amid intense negotiations
08:29to provide Ukraine with 90 billion euros in fresh assistance.
08:37European participation in the U.S.-Israel military operation against Iran
08:43is certainly a possibility,
08:45former CIA director and U.S. general David Petraeus told Euronews.
08:50Petraeus said European involvement,
08:53particularly in a defensive capacity,
08:55would have been wise from the beginning.
08:57Yet he stressed that no assumption had initially been made
09:01that European countries would join the operation.
09:04It should have been clear at the outset
09:05that Iran is not going to limit its targets
09:09to just U.S. bases, Israel and so forth.
09:13It's going after civilian targets,
09:15airfields, ports and so forth
09:17in the Gulf states and beyond
09:20and reaching as far as Cyprus, as you noted.
09:23So I think from a purely defensive standpoint,
09:27that would have been wise from the beginning.
09:29The U.S. general suggested that European countries
09:32could play a meaningful role
09:34in strengthening air and missile defenses.
09:37Despite concerns that the conflict could spiral
09:39into a prolonged war,
09:41Petraeus ruled out the possibility
09:43of U.S. ground forces being deployed in Iran.
10:14in 30 or 50 years from now,
10:16most of the glaciers from the alpine regions
10:19and from Tibet and plateau or South America
10:22will be disappeared. So before that we plan to retrieve the ice and store it in Antarctica
10:29for the future generation of scientists.
10:44The ice contained in the glacier are time machines that are extremely important to hold
10:50the information about what happened in the past and to put exactly in the right perspective
10:55to what is happening today.
11:093,200 meters of elevation, 12,000 kilometers from the coast with an average temperature
11:16of minus 52 degrees. So the ideal place for the storage of such a kind of samples.
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