00:00For the view from the European Parliament on all these various issues, coming up we'll be joined by Mark Bottenga,
00:05a Belgian politician and member of the European Parliament for the left group.
00:10He's known for his work on energy policy, social justice and international affairs.
00:15He's also been a very vocal critic of EU economic and foreign policy positions.
00:20Good morning, Mark Bottenga.
00:21Good morning.
00:22Great to have you with us. Thanks for joining us.
00:23First, what is the view from the Parliament on this temporary truce between the Americans, the Israelis and the Iranians?
00:29Well, from the Parliament, I'm not sure. I mean, we haven't had a session right now.
00:32What I think, first of all, is that we should celebrate this.
00:35I mean, this means there's no more, for the moment at least, if it holds, innocent Iranians are going to
00:39be bombed.
00:39No more schools, no more factories, no more hospitals, because this is what's been going on.
00:45And I think the position of the EU on this has been horrible.
00:48I mean, we've had speeches by Ursula von der Leyen, by Kaya Callas,
00:53basically ignoring the fact that the United States and Israel illegally attacked Iran.
00:56So this was amazing. Like they've been speaking about Iran attacking its neighbours rather than Iran being a victim.
01:02So we've mixed this up. So if this ceasefire holds, and I really hope so, it'll be very, very positive
01:08for, of course, in the first place, Iranians.
01:10But there is a caveat. The Israelis have said that they welcome the ceasefire, but it does not include Lebanon.
01:15That's concerning.
01:16Well, it is very concerning. I mean, we've seen that Israel has not respected, I mean, like the United States
01:20really in this war,
01:21or any rules on international law, on human rights. And they are now trying to occupy a big part of
01:27Lebanon, you know, up to one fifth of Lebanon.
01:29They've been ethnically cleansing the south of Lebanon. So that's extremely concerning.
01:33And once again, let me bring this back to the European Union. Why are we silent?
01:37Why are our top officials not condemning this? Why are we not taking sanctions?
01:42Well, Antonio Costa, the council president, has been quite vocal. He's had calls with the president of Iran. He's called
01:47the situation unacceptable.
01:48He's told Donald Trump not to move in. But of course, we've seen Ursula von der Leyen very quiet.
01:52Well, yeah, but I mean, even Antonio Costa, when you when you see basically their statements, all of them, and
01:56there's been I mean, they've got the same, basically, notes, I'm guessing.
02:01When Antonio Costa, the council president calls the Iranian president, he basically blames Iran for the war.
02:07Well, you know, it's very clear when Russia attacks Ukraine, the aggressor is Russia.
02:11When the United States and Israel attack Iran, the aggressors are the United States and Israel.
02:16And, you know, top officials, Costa, von der Leyen, Kalas have not been able to say this and to follow
02:21up, because obviously, once you have this, you need to follow up with actions.
02:24So what should they be saying and doing right now?
02:26Well, first of all, they should have condemned the war. They should have condemned the war crimes.
02:31You know, imagine that you've got 160 people killed in a strike on a school in Iran, and the European
02:38Union is not able to condemn this.
02:40Imagine that they should have condemned the genocidal rhetoric of President Trump last night saying, I'm going to blow up
02:46a country, I'm going to end the civilization.
02:48Of course, you should react. And they should have favored diplomacy.
02:51Because what have we seen? We've seen that China and Pakistan have basically taken diplomacy in their hands, have said,
02:58we're going to, you know, bring about this ceasefire by putting Iran and the United States around the table.
03:02So this is incredible. The European Union has done nothing, no diplomatic efforts whatsoever for a crisis that not only
03:08is violating human rights, is violating international law, but it was also violating our interests.
03:13You know, people see the gas prices going up and they see that their European leaders are basically, you know,
03:18on a Easter holiday.
03:19Well, Kayakalas, I understand, is in Saudi Arabia today, but just the Hungarian elections are coming up this weekend.
03:25How do you feel about J.D. Vance's trip this week to Budapest and also blaming Brussels bureaucrats?
03:31Well, it's not a surprise. You know, it's in the National Security Strategy of the United States that was published
03:35a few months ago,
03:36where they openly say we're going to intervene in Europe, supporting so-called patriotic forces.
03:42So influencing basically the elections inside, you know, it's direct interference.
03:46Something the United States have been doing in many countries, you know, they've been doing this in Africa, Latin America,
03:50and they're now doing it openly as well in Europe.
03:52So I'm not surprised. I'm, of course, very concerned.
03:55I'm also very concerned that when we speak about, also in the parliament, but also with the commission, about foreign
04:00interference, it's often about Russia.
04:01It's often about other countries, but it's very rarely about the United States.
04:04Well, this interference is now open, it's brazen, it's, you know, unapologetic.
04:08So I think we need to take this seriously and we need to be saying, guys, these United States, they
04:13are not an ally.
04:14Okay. Mark Bottenga, MEP there from the left.
04:16Thank you so much for joining us here this morning on Europe Today.
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