EU defense chiefs to tackle climate change for 1st time

ANKARA

EU defense ministers on Thursday will discuss security, defense, and climate change, said the bloc's foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini.

"We do recognize - probably the European Union has been one of the first to recognize - that climate change poses a security threat. So we will discuss this connection with the defense ministers for the first time ever," Mogherini said on Thursday, ahead of an informal meeting of EU defense ministers in Helsinki.

Mogherini said they will also discuss maritime security, and later the foreign ministers will join them to talk about hybrid threats and the Mideast.

Asked about the nuclear deal with Iran, Mogherini said: "Our constant focus - from the European Union, from my personal side, but also from our member states and that obviously includes France, but also Germany, the U.K. and other member states - has always been in these years to preserve the nuclear deal with Iran."

The Iran nuclear deal, also known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), was signed in 2015 between Iran and Russia, China, France, the U.K. and the U.S. plus Germany.

Last year, however, the U.S. unilaterally withdrew from the deal and intensified pressure on Tehran by re-imposing sanctions targeting the country’s energy and banking sectors.

Under the deal, the world’s major powers promised to lift economic sanctions from Iran in return for Tehran agreeing to limit its nuclear activity to peaceful and civilian purposes.

In recent months, Iran has abandoned parts of the deal and said it will go farther unless world powers do more to get around the U.S. sanctions.

Mogherini said the JCPOA is a UN Security Council resolution annex and it is neither an international nor a bilateral agreement.

"We will always advocate in favor of the full respect by all sides of the UN Security Council resolutions and that includes the JCPOA,” she added.

“If, based on that, further work can be done on the basis of mutual understanding and respect, in a co-operative manner, we will always be there to accompany and support this approach."