Libya/Iran/Iraq: Remarks by High Representative/Vice-President Josep Borrell upon arrival at the extraordinary Foreign Affairs Council

10.01.2020
Brussels

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The start of the year was a little bit complicated. The situation is very worrisome. I called this extraordinary meeting of the Foreign Affairs Council in order to have strategic discussions with the 28 Member States about the recent developments in Iran, in Iraq and also in Libya.

In the first part of the meeting, we are going to deal with Libya and there I will also inform the Member States of all the outreach and contacts I have done during these days with almost everybody, including with the Prime Minister of Libya Fayez al-Sarraj who came to Brussels, with the Turkish Foreign Affairs Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu and I will speak again with the Russian Foreign Affairs Minister Sergei Lavrov.

On the Iran issue we will also have discussions with the Secretary General of NATO, Jens Stoltenberg, who has been invited. And I will debrief the Member States about the contacts I have had with the Secretary of State of the United States Mike Pompeo, with the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Iran Mohammad Javad Zarif and with the Prime Minister of Iraq Adil Abd Al-Mahdi. 

I think we can have a broad analysis of the situation both with the Secretary General of NATO and with the Special Representative of the United Nations [Secretary-General and Head of the UN Support Mission] in Libya Mr Ghassan Salamé. 

After these discussions, I will debrief you on the results, the conclusions and the steps to take. 

 Link to the video: https://audiovisual.ec.europa.eu/en/video/I-182924

Peter Stano
Lead Spokesperson for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy
+32 (0)460 75 45 53