VILNIUS: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu lashed out Friday at the European Union over its first financial support package to help bolster Iran’s flagging economy, calling it “a big mistake” and “like a poison pill to the Iranian people.”
Speaking on a trip to Lithuania, Netanyahu criticized the EU, which announced Thursday a first tranche of 18 million euros ($21 million), part of the bloc’s commitment to keeping the Iran nuclear deal alive.
In May, US President Donald Trump withdrew from that deal, and began restoring US sanctions. The move has been exacerbating a financial crisis in Iran that has sent its currency tumbling.
“I think that the decision yesterday by the EU to give 18 million euros to Iran is a big mistake. It’s like a poison pill to the Iranian people and to the efforts to curb Iranian aggression in the region and beyond the region,” Netanyahu said.
“Iran attempted to conduct a terror attack on European soil just weeks ago… That is incredible,” he told a press conference that followed a meeting with three Baltic prime ministers — Lithuanian Saulius Skvernelis, Estonia’s Juri Ratas and Maris Kucinskis of Latvia.
Netanyahu was apparently referring to a suspected bomb plot against an Iranian opposition rally in France in late June that was thwarted by authorities. An Iranian diplomat is suspected of involvement.
Earlier, Netanyahu met with Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite who reiterated the EU position that Israeli settlements in occupied Palestinian territory violate international law.