Hamás is our common enemy, Czech FM says ahead of EU-Gulf meeting

We have to cooperate in support of Israel, Czech Foreign Minister Jan Lipavský (Pirates, Greens/EFA), who plans to advocate for Israel and Ukraine support at Tuesday’s meeting of EU foreign ministers with their Gulf counterparts in Muscat, Oman, said on Monday.

During the EU-Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) meeting, foreign ministers of EU-27, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman and the United Arab Emirates will discuss regional security or climate protection topics.

According to Czech diplomacy, the meeting provides the opportunity to talk with states of the Gulf about the situation in the Middle East. “We have to cooperate in support of Israel,” the chief of Czech diplomacy said on Monday before his trip to Oman.

On Tuesday (10 October), Lipavský plans to conduct bilateral meetings with his counterparts from Oman and Saudi Arabia.

“It is important to mention that Hamás is our common enemy and terrorist organisation,” Lipavský said and repeated that Czechia fully respects the right of Israel to self-defence.

Moreover, Lipavský will try to advocate for the support of Ukraine. “The need of close cooperation between the EU and states of the Gulf raises in connection with Russian aggression towards Ukraine. This meeting is a chance to get more support for the Ukrainian peace plan,” Lipavský said.

Besides the EU-GCC ministerial meeting, an emergency Foreign Affairs Council (FAC) in Oman was convened by Josep Borrell to talk about the situation in Israel and Palestine.

As EURACTIV.cz reported before, Czech MEP Jan Zahradil, a member of the ruling ODS (ECR) party, called for a reduction in European support for the Palestinians.

“Our group (ECR) will push for this in the European Parliament. This concept needs to be thoroughly examined and reconsidered. It is completely unacceptable to spread hatred towards Israel with European money,” he said on X (formally Twitter).

Lipavský confirmed that many countries could raise the need to revise EU funding to Palestine on Tuesday’s emergency FAC meeting. “I think that several states will open this topic. At least the EU should have a close look at projects in Gaza,” the Czech diplomacy chief said.

“However, we should not put all the projects in one basket. Many humanitarian projects in the West Bank are controlled, we know where the money goes,” he added.

(Aneta Zachová | Euractiv.cz)