What Hannah spoke about.

I am willing to think about how the European Union will sooner or later be able to replace the UN at least to some extent. But what we need right now, today, tomorrow and the day after tomorrow, is a solution to the humanitarian suffering of the people of Yemen, a solution for Iran to support the Houthis and to continue to cheer this entire conflict and for Saudi Arabia and others to at least not

I would like us to be in a position in world politics at the moment, where we could get a mandate for blue helmets for something else. But in Yemen, as in other situations, we have veto powers – in this case, I fear, even three with the US, with China and with Russia – that block any blue helmet missions. That is why, I believe, it is all the more important that we finally form, together with the

Madam President, dear colleagues, the Middle East is on fire. And with every country drawn into this conflict, the danger grows further. Now, once again, Yemenis are being dragged into a war that was never theirs. The Houthis, backed by Iran, attack Saudi Arabia, Saudi bombs are falling on Yemen and ordinary Yemenis pay the price again. Over 2 million children are acutely malnourished. In Taiz, hu

Mr President, Taraneh Rahimi and Leila Abolhasani are on death row, like so many others who demonstrated peacefully for freedom in Iran. They sang. They danced. They chanted for freedom. The regime shut down the internet and started to shoot. Tens of thousands were killed. Yet those responsible still enjoy power and impunity. But witnesses spoke. Human rights defenders documented. Names have been

Mr President, four years ago today, Jina Mahsa Amini was fighting for her life in a hospital bed. She lost that fight. Since then, tens of thousands of young Iranians have been killed, imprisoned, forced into exile. Four years of uprising, of courage met with bullets, of hope met with prison cells. And yet, this generation has changed Iran, even if it has not yet changed the regime. Meanwhile, the

Madam President, dear colleagues, the Russian aggression is testing us too. Drone attacks, disinformation, low-level agents, the need to scale up our defence industry and the costs that come with it. And when a challenge becomes too big for Member States, such as this one, they call on Europe to fix it, and rightly so, because together we are stronger and together is the only chance we have. But w

I'm very happily doing that. We have an agency in the European Parliament – it's called DG ITEC. And we actually made this agency able to check all the phones because of our work in the Pegasus Committee, because we were kind of expecting us to be hacked at one point or another. It's quite frustrating to see it really happened. Call DG ITEC, set up a meeting. They look at your phone, they go throu

Madam President, dear colleagues, you all have your phones with you right now, as you have them at the negotiation table, at the dinner table, maybe even on your bedside table. And for some of you, someone else has been there too. The spyware that hacked Stelios Kouloglou was silent. He didn't need to click on a link or open an attachment. So how would you know that your phone hasn't also been inf

Mr President, dear colleagues, grand statements do not resolve complex crises. It has been nine months since Trump declared a ceasefire for Gaza. Since then, more than 1 000 Palestinians have been killed and more than 60 % of Gaza is controlled by the Israeli military – with Netanyahu pushing for 70 % – and families forced to flee again and again. An illegitimate so-called 'peace board' is to gove

Madam President, dear colleagues, we all know how brutally authoritarian regimes silence dissent at home in Iran, Russia, Venezuela, Vietnam and so many other places. But they also reach into Europe right at this moment, also in your home countries. Chinese overseas police stations in Italy, Croatia, Germany or Ireland. Iranian operatives working with organised crime to plot attacks in Netherlands

Madam President, sometimes honesty is the only way out, dear colleagues, so let's be honest. With Iran, there is a deal that they will start negotiating a deal. The Strait of Hormuz, which was open before the war, might reopen. In return, the Iranian regime gets sanctions relief and access to frozen assets while they continue to kill their own people. In Gaza, we have a ceasefire that is no ceasef

Mr President, dear colleagues, we debate the brutal repression of women and society in Afghanistan here for the umpteenth time. Nobody can claim not to know. And yet, at the same time, the Commission invites the Taliban for deportation talks, technical talks, as if this had nothing to do with politics. But there is nothing technical about opening doors to extremists while those who fought these ex

Mr President, dear colleagues, when we speak about Iran these days, we speak about missiles, nuclear enrichment at the Strait of Hormuz. But for millions of Iranians, geopolitics looks very different: it looks like waiting outside prison gates for news of your family, being cut off from the internet and from information from the world, being forgotten by the very powers who claim to act in your na

Madam President, Mr Bielan, Mr Jaki, one cannot build reliable security on unreliable partners. And by now it should be obvious Donald Trump is not reliable. You can flatter him, you can appease him and he will still hit you with tariffs, annexation threats or troop drawdowns. And none of that will make us safer. The alternative, on the other hand, is clear and simple: strengthen our European defe

Maybe it is about time to move beyond good practice on this one, but we face a similar credibility problem on Iran. The EU has finally listed the Revolutionary Guard as a terror organisation, but its networks still continue to work in Europe. They sit in consulates, they run business, and they intimidate and harass Iranians, but also Israelis living here. So, I am wondering: what have you and Memb

High‑Representative, it's good to have you here, but the Middle East is burning and the European Union is still mostly watching from the sidelines. You often said it yourself: you want the European Union to be a geopolitical actor, yet on Israel the gap between our words and our actions keeps growing. We have leverage, but we hesitate to use it. You mentioned yourself that last year your services

Mr President, obey or we will make your life miserable, resist and we break, you flee and we find you even in Europe, speak up and we come after your family – this is how the Iranian regime has ruled for decades. Now, they are expanding this model from holding their own people hostage to holding the world hostage in the Strait of Hormuz. You sanction us, we close the strait. You want negotiations,

Madam President, this is a point of order in line with Rule 202 of the Rules of Procedure. Nasrin Sotoudeh was awarded the Sakharov Prize in 2012, and she was abducted by the Iranian regime just 25 days ago, and is now held in an unknown location. She was abducted because she denounced the January massacres. She was abducted because she spoke out against executions, because she protested against m

Madam President, this war has raised hopes among many Iranians, hopes for change and hopes for freedom. But today, there is a real threat that it may end in a disaster, leaving them with nothing but an emboldened, even more repressive and aggressive regime. While the world is watching missiles and internet memes, the Islamic regime is tightening its grip at home. Political prisoners are held in ov

Madam President, dear colleagues, the people in Iran did not choose this war, the regime did. Yet they are the ones paying the highest price, trapped between missiles from above and repression from within. Trump and Netanyahu are gambling with the lives of 90 million Iranians and with the future of an entire region. How are we supposed to endorse a war when the goal is unclear and the strategy cha

Madam President, dear colleagues, everyone says Europe needs to become more independent in defence, and I agree. For years now we have been putting forward concrete ideas at the European level on how to get there, like these reports that show, for example, how flagship projects can strengthen European security by building a European drone defence, by reinforcing the eastern border, by developing E

Mr President, in the shadow of war, danger for political prisoners does not disappear. It grows. Iran's prisons are full of protestors, from Nobel Peace Prize laureates to tens of thousands whose names we may never know. Bombs are falling and they are locked in. Reports suggest chaos inside Evin prison: food is running out, prisoners are being transferred to unknown locations, families have no con

Madam President, this is a point of order on our urgency that we will vote on later regarding the situation of Christians and journalists in Türkiye. When we usually work on human rights resolutions – urgencies – in this House, it is common practice when we talk about certain human rights defenders, opposition figures, to extend our solidarity in the text to other persons and groups at risk. For e

Mr President, tens of thousands shot, body bags piling up in silence, grieving families forced into false confessions – the Islamic regime has one goal: to ensure that no one ever dares to take to the streets again. And they are not done yet. Iran's prisons are full of protesters, from Nobel Peace Prize laureates to thousands whose names we may never know. There, the regime tries to break those th

Mr President, dear colleagues, the brutal attacks on the North East are a painful reminder of Syria's darkest chapters. An entire generation in Syria has grown up under al-Assad's cruel dictatorship and civil war. Every new escalation opens wounds that never had the time to heal. The violence must end once and for all, and this is the responsibility of all sides. And it is al-Sharaa's responsibili