World leaders call for calm after Iranian attack on US forces – By Silvia Amaro (CNBC) / Jan 8 2020
- The EU’s executive arm has been a key supporter of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) — a deal signed in 2015 between the U.S., Iran, the U.K., France, Germany, Russia and China which aimed to prevent Tehran developing nuclear weapons.
- The EU’s coordinator for the deal, Josep Borrell said Wednesday that the situation in the Middle East is “extremely worrying.”
Political leaders are urging Iran and the United States to refrain from any steps that would further aggravate ongoing tensions in the Middle East.
Iran launched more than a dozen ballistic missiles against U.S. and coalition forces stationed at bases in Iraq on Wednesday morning. It is yet unclear if the attack has led to any causalities. The attack is the latest step in an escalating conflict between the United States and Iran, after the former killed Iran’s top military commander Qasem Soleimani in Baghdad last week.
“The use of weapons must stop now to give space to dialogue. We are all called upon to do everything possible to rekindle talks. There cannot be enough of that,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told reporters on Wednesday.
“We have established and timetested relations with many actors in the region and beyond to de-escalate the situation,” she added.
The EU’s executive arm has been a key supporter of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) — a deal signed in 2015 between the U.S., Iran, the U.K., France, Germany, Russia and China which aimed to prevent Tehran developing nuclear weapons.
Continue to article: https://www.cnbc.com/2020/01/08/world-leaders-react-to-iran-attack-on-us-bases-in-iraq.html
Ursula von der Leyen, incoming president of the European Commission, left, speaks during news conference at the European Parliament, in Strasbourg, France, on Tuesday, July 16, 2019.
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