Belgium urges EU Council to impose sanctions against Israel

Belgium, which holds the EU Council presidency until the end of June, has proposed trade sanctions against Israel, Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo said in an interview with the Le Soir newspaper, Report informs via TASS.

“The Belgian government decided a few weeks ago that it was necessary to impose trade sanctions against Israel. <...> But if Belgium itself introduces these sanctions, then trade routes will simply change. Therefore, we have been discussing for several weeks with other European countries how to solve this problem without saying it out loud," he said.

According to De Croo, the EU can use Israel's failure to comply with the human rights clause of the association agreement with the EU as a pretext for sanctions.

According to him, Belgium asked EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell to “explore this possibility.”