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EU’s Kallas accuses Iran of escalating Middle East conflict

05.03.2026 22:00
Iran is seeking to escalate the conflict in the Middle East by attacking other countries in the region indiscriminately, EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said on Thursday.
Kaja Kallas
Kaja KallasEPA/OLIVIER HOSLET

"Iran is an exporter of war,” Kallas told reporters during a visit to Switzerland. "Right now, the regime is trying to drag as many countries as possible into this war," she said, according to the Reuters news agency.

Asked whether she believed Iran was attempting to draw NATO into the conflict and whether the European Union had a strategy to avoid being pulled in, Kallas said Tehran was seeking to "sow chaos" in the region, Reuters reported.

Earlier, speaking at the University of Zurich, Kallas said the turmoil in the Middle East was a direct result of the erosion of international law and that Russia's invasion of Ukraine had encouraged other states to act with impunity.

"Without restoring international law, together with accountability, we are doomed to see repeated violations of the law, disruption and chaos," she said.

Kallas also said a shift in foreign policy by the United States has "rocked the transatlantic relationship to its foundation" and had a "seismic" impact on the international order.

"The current direction is a new world order characterised by competition and coercive power politics, dominated by a handful of military powers seeking to establish and secure spheres of influence," she said, according to Reuters.

Speaking on Wednesday at a news conference in Warsaw, alongside Polish Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski, Kallas said "the dream scenario would be a democratic Iran that poses no threat to its neighbours."

She added, however, that "this outcome is far from certain" as "no one can predict which direction Iran will take."

(gs)

Source: Reuters, IAR, PAP