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03:53Okay, and apologies to our viewers there.
03:55We're having some technical difficulties hearing there from our correspondents.
03:58That was, of course, Jane Witherspoon reporting live there from Dubai.
04:02And now for the view from Lebanon, we can head to Beirut
04:04and speak to the Lebanese MP and former Deputy Prime Minister, Ghassan Hasbani.
04:09Good morning. Welcome to the programme.
04:11Thank you so much for joining us.
04:13Good morning.
04:14So, look, President Trump has said now he's had a severe call with Israel's Netanyahu
04:17and now he says no Israeli troops can go into Beirut.
04:21Have you any faith, though, in this phone call?
04:24Well, the situation is actually more complicated than this.
04:29The Israelis had threatened to target the suburbs of Beirut,
04:33the stronghold of Hezbollah headquarters,
04:36if Hezbollah continued to target Israel's towns and settlements in the north.
04:42And that was basically the condition that after calls between the Lebanese authorities
04:48and the United States administration, we ended up with effectively averting the suburbs of Beirut,
04:57such an attack and the de-escalation of the conflict with the promise from Hezbollah
05:01that they would cease the targeting of the Israeli towns.
05:05Yet this has not been really cemented and clarified as how it will be implemented
05:12and whether it will hold for a long time.
05:16This morning, it has been quieter than the last few days, of course.
05:21But it is unclear whether the Israelis will continue their operations in the south of Lebanon
05:27on the ground against Hezbollah,
05:28or whether they will simply cease all operations based on this U.S. request
05:35to clear the way for the Lebanese-Israeli discussions in Washington.
05:38And that's the big concern. Is a real ceasefire actually taking shape?
05:42Because we're seeing clashes still ongoing despite all those announcements
05:45and also two Israeli soldiers killed just by Hezbollah.
05:50Yes, indeed. I think the impression here on the ground is that
05:54the ceasefire would probably be limited to not targeting the Beirut suburb, if it holds.
06:02But the operations on the ground in the south seem to be continuing against Hezbollah,
06:07who incidentally was the one who restarted this confrontation by sending rockets to Israel
06:14upon the assassination of the Khamenei.
06:17And what about the Israelis? Do you trust the Israelis to stop the killings?
06:20We haven't heard now from Betanyahu after that phone call last night with President Trump.
06:24I don't trust any side to stop anything because Hezbollah effectively is an Iranian faction
06:31on Lebanese territory dictated. Their actions are being largely dictated by the war that's
06:39ongoing today. And they are effectively a militarized force outside the Lebanese government
06:44control on the eastern Mediterranean, controlled by Iran. And they are at war with Israel.
06:50So it's not the Lebanese state that's at war with Israel at this point. And effectively,
06:55what the Lebanese state is trying is to de-escalate and avert or avoid further destruction
07:02in Lebanon in a war that is not for Lebanon to be part of anyway.
07:07And describe now the situation on the ground in Lebanon. It got from bad to worse recently.
07:13Indeed, it got worse. And we had effectively a cessation of hostilities for about 15 months
07:20before it restarted in March, as I said, as Hezbollah restarted targeting Israel. It was
07:27essentially a fragile ceasefire on the premise that Hezbollah would be fully dismantled by the
07:32Lebanese government. This was happening, but a much slower pace than expected, given the limited
07:38capabilities available at the Lebanese with the Lebanese armed forces. But the war in Iran
07:44triggered a new attack from Hezbollah towards Israel, which led to a further escalation that we
07:49are seeing right now. So it's very difficult to tell how this will end. But it is very important
07:57to know that the Lebanese government has announced Hezbollah to be an illegal entity, the military
08:03activities of Hezbollah to be completely illegal. And today it is about how can the Lebanese
08:10government control all of its territory and establish its sovereignty with the help of its
08:15supporting countries and to control the decision on war and peace so that we can avoid such a
08:22situation happening in the future where militarized factions on Lebanese territory can pull the trigger
08:28at any point in time and drag Lebanon into a war with Israel again.
08:32And on that point, do you feel supported on the international stage or do you feel completely
08:35isolated?
08:37No, right now there's great support, particularly coming from the United States administration.
08:42We rarely have this kind of attention at the highest possible level, which is the president
08:47in this instance. We have the support of the European Union and the European countries individually
08:54to bring about stability and peace to Lebanon and to control any activities on Lebanese territory
09:02by the Lebanese government so that the country can recover. We can reconstruct what was destroyed
09:10and we can exit from an economic and financial crisis that we have been struggling with for many
09:17years, even before the conflict started.
09:19But as you said earlier, you do not trust the Israelis at this point. What do you think their
09:23end game is here with their military incursion?
09:26I do not trust neither the Israelis nor the Iranians to stop this conflict until there is a clear
09:34resolution to the arms outside the Lebanese government control. Effectively, Lebanon for more than 70 years
09:42has been struggling with this, struggling with militarized factions on its territory, outside the Lebanese
09:48government control, launching attacks on Israel and Israel retaliating and invading, then withdrawing,
09:55then invading again. So this has been an ongoing situation for many, many years that Lebanon cannot
10:00sustain. So basically what we need to have is stability in Lebanon and the Lebanese government in full
10:08control of its territory so that it would be part of the international law and protected by
10:13international law.
10:14Okay, Mr. Hasbani, thank you so much for taking the time out this morning to speak to us here live
10:18on Europe Today. Now moving on, the EU Council and the EU Parliament has rubber stamped a controversial
10:24law to speed up the return of migrants that have no right to stay in Europe and set up so
10:29-called
10:29return hubs. Those in favour say it's a smart way to manage migration ahead of big elections in France
10:35and Italy next year. But critics warn of a xenophobic twist in EU affairs. For more on this deal,
10:41we're joined here in the studio by our very own Stefan Krobey. Stefan, quite a shift to the right here.
10:46This would have been a major taboo 10 years ago.
10:48Yeah, absolutely, Maeve. I mean, the whole discussion about return hubs shows you just how far the EU has
10:54moved towards a tougher approach on migration. Remember, 10 years ago, during the migration crisis,
11:00Europe opened its doors to more than a million asylum seekers. And what happened? Migration became
11:09Europe's most polarising political issue and the populist backlash never really ended. That's why
11:15we've seen right-wing parties surging across the continent, campaigning on promises to cut migration
11:22and to tighten borders. Those parties exploited the fact that the EU had struggled with a very simple
11:29problem. And that is that thousands of migrants whose asylum applications were rejected stayed in
11:35Europe anyway. Governments complained that deportations were too slow, too complicated, too
11:40bureaucratic or even impossible. Now Brussels wants a long-lasting solution, the return hubs. Just a few
11:50years ago, just a proposal would have been politically unthinkable in this town, as you alluded to. But
11:57today, it has become a part of a much broader shift in European migration policy. The message is
12:03no longer simply welcome, but control. The EU has strengthened border controls, expanded the powers of
12:12Frontex and signed migration deals with countries outside the EU. And Europe increasingly focused on
12:19on deterrence rather than reception. So return hubs may be the clearest symbol yet of that
12:27transformation, Maeve. Okay, Stefan Coby, thank you so much for that update. And now for the view from the
12:32European Parliament. Coming up, we'll be joined by Charlie Weimers, the Swedish member of the European
12:38Parliament from the right-wing Swedish Democrats, the Vice President of the European Conservative and
12:42Reformists, who's been working on this file inside the European Parliament. The Parliament, of course,
12:47will have to greenlight this file and also EU countries, but it could enter into force as soon
12:54as next month. Good morning, sir. Welcome to Europe Today. Good morning. Thanks for having me.
12:59So I know we've been debating this here in Brussels for months, but just remind our viewers,
13:02what is in this deal? Because some say the measures are rather draconian. Well, the EU has reached a landmark
13:08deal on the return regulation. That means, for instance, longer detention periods to prevent people from
13:16absconding, firm entry bans that carry real weight, and the legal framework for return hubs.
13:25So, indeed, the era of deportations has begun. We're moving from words to actual enforcement of
13:32our laws and our borders. But this kind of language would not have been used here in Brussels 10 years
13:37ago. What has changed? Reality has kicked in. And everyone sees that mass uncontrolled migration
13:46cannot continue. And people demand answers to how we are going to take back control over the migration
13:53policy. And remember, one out of five with a final return decision is going home today. Hundreds of
14:01thousands of people are going into the shadows every year in Europe, and that needs to stop.
14:08But the mass migration crisis, if you like, was in 2016. In 2026, the picture is very different,
14:13and the numbers of irregular migration are gone down, if you look at the Frontex.
14:16Well, they have gone down since 2015. That was a very extreme year. But the effects,
14:23the consequences of years of illegal migration are there. Just look at Paris this past weekend.
14:31People seized this, and they demand that the EU does something about border control,
14:36does something about returns.
14:39But why do you think this will fix the problem? Does migration not need an overall much more holistic
14:42approach?
14:43Well, we do have a holistic approach. For instance, we are stopping asylum shopping,
14:48people moving through a range of safe countries on their way to a destination in a rich country in
14:55Europe. Now we are focusing on helping people in their area. We are also looking at how to make
15:04countries take back their own citizens, something that has been one of the major obstacles to effective
15:11returns through the years. We are going to use trade, aid, visa policy to get those countries to
15:19take back their citizens.
15:20But the Greens, another party in the NGO's civil society are not happy. The Greens have said this
15:25agreement legalizes return hubs outside the EU. It gives a green light to the detention of minors
15:30and to lifetime entry bans without serious legal grounds. They say fundamental rights stand at the top
15:35of the hierarchy of norms. Because the EU is meant to be a union of values. We hear there's so
15:40much coming out of Brussels.
15:42A very important value of the European Union is rule of law. And if we're talking about human rights,
15:50that includes the right of Europeans to live in safe societies governed by the rule of law.
15:54And I wonder why the Greens won't accept the idea of, for instance, terror suspects getting lifetime
16:03entry bans. Why do the Greens want them in Europe? That's the question.
16:07That's a question for perhaps The Ring, our debating show here on Euronews. Mr. Wymers,
16:11thank you so much for being our guest this morning on Europe Today. And now moving on,
16:16we can bring in another story now, which brings us to France, where allies there have detained a
16:21sanctioned Russian oil tanker in the Atlantic over the weekend. President Macron has said for more on
16:27how ships are illegally transporting sanctioned Russian oil. Here's our Jacob Janis with the help of
16:32Jorge Lebrerero.
16:35For most Europeans, it was just another quiet weekend. But out in the Atlantic, a high-stakes
16:41naval standoff was playing out. Last Sunday, French maritime forces operating alongside the UK
16:47intercepted a sanctioned Russian oil tanker named the Tager. And its Russian captain flantly refused to
16:53comply with orders, forcing military teams to take control of the vessel. And yesterday,
16:58French President Emmanuel Macron declared it completely unacceptable for ships to bypass
17:03international sanctions and fund Russia's ongoing war. But hold on for a second. What actually is the
17:10Shadow Fleet? And how does it affect Europeans? Russia's infamous Shadow Fleet is a clandestine armada
17:18of tankers that Moscow has deployed to bypass international sanctions on oil sales, most notably
17:24the G7 price cap. And the Kremlin has spent billions to buy dilapidated ships of murky ownership
17:30that fall short of the premium insurance and, as a result, evade Western oversight. But insurance is
17:37just one of the ways that the Shadow Fleet uses to avoid global tracking. Take a look. These ghost vessels
17:43manipulate their registration, switch flags to jump from one jurisdiction to another, transmit
17:48falsified GPS data, or turn off their transponders to become invisible at sea. Finally, they rely on the
17:56oldest trick in the book – moving their oil cargo between ships to mask its true origin before it ever
18:02reaches port. And yes, the EU, through successive packages of sanctions, has blacklisted over 600 of
18:09these shadow vessels. But the years-long crackdown has turned into a frustrating game of a whack-a-mole.
18:15Which simply means that the moment one ship is designated, another emerges from the dark.
18:20Which might seem like fun, but for Europeans this is not just a financial game of cat and mouse.
18:26These vessels are in extremely poor condition, making them an environmental ticking clock for a
18:32catastrophic oil spill on European shores. Also, a tanker thought to be a part of the fleet has been
18:38caught in the Baltic Sea, dragging its anchor to damage critical undersea cables. And historically,
18:44global maritime laws were written to protect free trade under the premise of innocent passage.
18:49But, as you can see, there is nothing innocent in how Russia uses these rules as a shield to fund
18:55its war machine.
19:01And with that, we can bring this edition of Europe Today to an end. If you'd like to
19:06share your view with us on any of the stories we're covering for you this morning, do reach out.
19:10Europe Today at Euronews.com is our email address. Europe Today is also available to listen to as a
19:16podcast or read as a newsletter. So do sign up, subscribe and stay informed with us here on Euronews.
19:22But for now, bye from Brussels.
19:54and see you next time.
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