MBS to Brussels

Chalk up a win for Charles Michel, the President of the European Council, who leads the GCC-EU summit that will bring high-level attendants including Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

The meeting of the two blocs is a first and has been in the works for the past two years. Mr Michel appointed a special Gulf envoy and travelled over the summer to the region to make sure it was on track.

Before today's talks, European officials warned of the urgency of the meeting as war between Israel and Gaza, and more recently Lebanon, threatens to spread and engulf Iran.

“I expect the Middle East to be a central piece of the discussion, especially with the role that some Gulf countries are playing in trying to reach a ceasefire,” an EU official said. “We want to avoid a general conflagration, which is a fear on both sides.”

The leaders are meeting on Wednesday afternoon. Announcements concerning trade and the economy are expected as an expression of concern over the destruction of Ukraine's energy infrastructure by Russia. A joint statement is in preparation, but not guaranteed.

The EU in May 2022 launched a strategic partnership that included issues of shared concern, such as security and the green transition. In May 2023, it nominated its first EU-Gulf envoy, former Italian foreign affairs minister Luigi di Maio.

Punishment diplomacy

French President Emmanuel Macron was last night locked in a row with Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Leaked comments had Mr Macron telling a cabinet meeting that Israel was created as a result of a resolution adopted by the UN, as he urged Mr Netanyahu to abide by UN decisions.

Mr Netanyahu was somewhat improbably interpreted as telling the French leader he was taken aback by a summit on Lebanon due to take place in Paris next week. Dodgy translation or not, we can understand he is against the gathering.

Meanwhile a demand to impose sanctions on hardline Israeli cabinet ministers was laid down in the UK parliament by former foreign office civil servant Calum Miller, now the Lib Dem’s foreign affairs spokesman.

“Does the minister agree that now is the time to use our sanctions regime against the extremist ministers [Itamar] Ben-Gvir and [Bezalel] Smotrich?” he asked on Tuesday, referring to the far-right national security and finance ministers, respectively.

Anneliese Dodds, the Development Minister, agreed that the Israeli ministers had made "inflammatory" comments and “even worse than that, remarks which are appallingly discriminatory”, which the British government “wholeheartedly” condemned.

“The UK will always keep our sanctions regime closely under review, as he would expect, and we will announce any changes to the House,” Ms Dodds replied.

The issue arose after Lord Cameron, who lost the foreign secretary position after the election in July, had earlier told the BBC that he had been “working up” the sanctions against the hard-right pair to put “pressure on Netanyahu” to act within international law.

Another MP declared that imagery of the Israeli air strike near Gaza’s Al Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, in which patients on IV drips were reportedly burnt alive in their beds “will be the abiding image of this genocide”.

Border conditions

Mr Michel's predecessor Donald Tusk has returned to the helm of his native Poland, where his latest policy shake-up has struck at the very heart of Europe's long-standing asylum consensus. As he brought forward the construction of a 700km “East Shield” on the Belarus border, Mr Tusk suspended the right to claim refugee status.

Poland argues the right to asylum is “being used precisely contrary to its essence” by Russia and Belarus. EU border guards have detected more than 13,000 people entering the bloc this year from Belarus, an increase of almost 200 per cent, according to figures released on Tuesday.

Interior Minister Tomasz Siemoniak said Poland was experiencing its “biggest border crisis in many years” with the influx from Belarus, many of whom come from Syria and Somalia. The former Soviet state is suspected of working with Russia to orchestrate the flow of migrants and destabilise Europe.

In fairness to Mr Tusk, the EU is embracing tougher policies, including asylum processing centres in third countries. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen called for Europe to stand “fair and firm on migration”. She said the crisis on the border with Belarus needed a “clear and determined European response”.

But so far Poland is opting for the go-it-alone response presented to the cabinet by Mr Tusk on Tuesday. It aims to make the border “impassable for illegal migrants”. Mr Tusk said the right to asylum could not be sustained under current conditions.