EU core moves to sanction Israeli settlements as Cyprus invites Israeli president

On Tuesday, a coalition of eight EU member states—including France, Spain, the United Kingdom, Canada, Norway and Iceland—transitioned from merely condemning illegal settlements in the West Bank to endorsing sanctions targeting Israeli settlement enterprises. The move intensifies pressure on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ahead of upcoming Israeli elections. Britain’s foreign minister, Antti Burnam, emphasized that words alone are insufficient without concrete measures, while UK foreign secretary Ed Miliband labeled the settlement expansion as ethnic cleansing by illegal settler terrorists.

In a contrasting step, Cyprus President Nikos Christodoulides invited Israeli President Isaac Herzog to the island to deepen the two nations’ strategic cooperation, even as other Western states push for harsher actions against Israel. The invitation underscores Cyprus’s effort to portray itself as a regional actor, despite its calls for EU unity on other foreign-policy issues such as Turkey.