World
EU leaders weigh Lebanon partnership in response to Middle East crisis
EU leaders have supported deeper engagement with Lebanon to help safeguard it from the repercussions of the crisis gripping the Middle East, Charles Michel has said.
“We had an in-depth discussion on Lebanon,” the European Council President told reporters following a summit of EU leaders in Brussels late on Wednesday.
“They have a lot of Syrian refugees in Lebanon and we all understand it’s our responsibility to engage with this country (…) including the Lebanese armed forces,” Michel explained, adding that future cooperation with Lebanon could include steps to manage migration flows into Europe.
In the summit’s conclusions, the 27 leaders say they stand ready to “work with all partners to avoid further escalation of tensions in the region, notably in Lebanon.”
It comes after tensions between Iran and Israel reached a dangerous high over the weekend when Tehran launched an unprecedented barrage of drones and missiles towards Israeli territory.
A deepening economic crisis and fragile government makes Lebanon particularly vulnerable to the instability gripping the region. The presence of the Iranian-backed militant group Hezbollah – which has continuously exchanged fire across the border with Israel since the outbreak of the war with Hamas, and which took part in Tehran’s aerial attack last weekend – also risks dragging the country into the deepening conflict.
The country is also home to some 210,000 Palestinian and 1.5 million Syrian refugees, meaning further instability could unleash a wave of migrants towards Europe.
Last week, Cyprus announced it would halt the processing of asylum applications due to a surge in arrivals of Syrian refugees transiting through Lebanon and attempting to reach the island, which lies just 260 km off the Lebanese coast in the Mediterranean sea.
Speaking ahead of the conference, Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides announced he and Commission President von der Leyen would travel to Lebanon in early May to address a range of issues, including migration.
Christodoulides also said he would encourage other EU leaders to consider reassessing the so-called “safe areas” within Syria in order to facilitate the return of migrants and refugees.
Michel, however, refrained from confirming whether other leaders had backed the proposal. “We need to engage with Lebanon, that’s very clear. Migration is only one aspect,” Michel said.
“We try to engage with third countries to develop partnerships on migration, but not only on migration,” he added.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni was among the leaders that called for an “assessment” of the situation in Lebanon, Michel said.
Since sweeping to power in late 2022, Meloni has been a key driver in EU efforts to strengthen the EU’s so-called “external dimension” of migration by striking deals with third countries that include targeted measures to crack down on human traffickers and curb the departures of irregular migrants towards European shores.
The bloc’s deal with Tunisia, which injects EU cash into the North African country in return for tighter migrant controls, has nonetheless been slammed by human rights defenders for ignoring the documented abuses and authoritarian tendencies of the Tunisian government.
World
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World
Greenland leaders push back on Trump’s calls for US control of the island: ‘We don’t want to be Americans’
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Greenland’s leadership is pushing back on President Donald Trump as he and his administration call for the U.S. to take control of the island. Several Trump administration officials have backed the president’s calls for a takeover of Greenland, with many citing national security reasons.
“We don’t want to be Americans, we don’t want to be Danes, we want to be Greenlanders,” Greenland Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen and four party leaders said in a statement Friday night, according to The Associated Press. Greenland, a self-governing Danish territory and a longtime U.S. ally, has repeatedly rejected Trump’s statements about U.S. acquiring the island.
Greenland’s party leaders reiterated that the island’s “future must be decided by the Greenlandic people.”
“As Greenlandic party leaders, we would like to emphasize once again our wish that the United States’ contempt for our country ends,” the statement said.
TRUMP SAYS US IS MAKING MOVES TO ACQUIRE GREENLAND ‘WHETHER THEY LIKE IT OR NOT’
Greenland has rejected the Trump administration’s push to take over the Danish territory. (Thomas Traasdahl/Ritzau Scanpix / AFP via Getty Images; Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Trump was asked about the push to acquire Greenland on Friday during a roundtable with oil executives. The president, who has maintained that Greenland is vital to U.S. security, said it was important for the country to make the move so it could beat its adversaries to the punch.
“We are going to do something on Greenland, whether they like it or not,” Trump said Friday. “Because if we don’t do it, Russia or China will take over Greenland, and we’re not going to have Russia or China as a neighbor.”
Trump hosted nearly two dozen oil executives at the White House on Friday to discuss investments in Venezuela after the historic capture of President Nicolás Maduro on Jan. 3.
“We don’t want to have Russia there,” Trump said of Venezuela on Friday when asked if the nation appears to be an ally to the U.S. “We don’t want to have China there. And, by the way, we don’t want Russia or China going to Greenland, which, if we don’t take Greenland, you can have Russia or China as your next-door neighbor. That’s not going to happen.”
Trump said the U.S. is in control of Venezuela after the capture and extradition of Maduro.
Nielsen has previously rejected comparisons between Greenland and Venezuela, saying that his island was looking to improve its relations with the U.S., according to Reuters.
A “Make America Go Away” baseball cap, distributed for free by Danish artist Jens Martin Skibsted, is arranged in Sisimiut, Greenland, on March 30, 2025. (Juliette Pavy/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
FROM CARACAS TO NUUK: MADURO RAID SPARKS FRESH TRUMP PUSH ON GREENLAND
Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said on Monday that Trump’s threats to annex Greenland could mean the end of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).
“I also want to make it clear that if the U.S. chooses to attack another NATO country militarily, then everything stops. Including our NATO and thus the security that has been provided since the end of the Second World War,” Frederiksen told Danish broadcaster TV2.
That same day, Nielsen said in a statement posted on Facebook that Greenland was “not an object of superpower rhetoric.”
Greenland’s Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen stands next to Denmark’s Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen during a visit to the Danish Parliament in Copenhagen on April 28, 2025. (Liselotte Sabroe/Ritzau Scanpix/AFP via Getty Images)
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White House deputy chief of staff for policy Stephen Miller doubled down on Trump’s remarks, telling CNN in an interview on Monday that Greenland “should be part of the United States.”
CNN anchor Jake Tapper pressed Miller about whether the Trump administration could rule out military action against the Arctic island.
“The United States is the power of NATO. For the United States to secure the Arctic region, to protect and defend NATO and NATO interests, obviously Greenland should be part of the United States,” he said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
World
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