At confab in Slovakia, FM Eli Cohen urges countering Iran before it’s ‘too late’

Lazar Berman is The Times of Israel's diplomatic reporter

From left: Miroslav Wlachovský, Jan Lipavský,  Eli Cohen and Alexander Schallenberg meet in Bratislava, Slovakia on May 30, 2023. (Israeli Embassy in Slovakia)
From left: Miroslav Wlachovský, Jan Lipavský, Eli Cohen and Alexander Schallenberg meet in Bratislava, Slovakia on May 30, 2023. (Israeli Embassy in Slovakia)

Meeting with his Czech, Slovakian and Austrian counterparts in Bratislava, Slovakia, Foreign Minister Eli Cohen presents Iran as a threat to Europe.

“Yesterday the Gulf states, Saudi Arabia and Israel were in Iran’s sights, today it’s Ukraine,” he says in the closed door meeting, according to the Foreign Ministry. “Tomorrow it’s you.”

“If we don’t work together, it will be too late,” he continues.

Cohen also calls Israel “a strategic asset for Europe’s countries” in energy, security, counterterrorism, and regional stability.

Cohen is the first Israeli minister to address the trilateral Austerlitz, or Slavkov, format, where he is joined by Austria’s Alexander Schallenberg, Czechia’s Jan Lipavský and Slovakia’s Miroslav Wlachovský.

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