Joining Mogherini in boycotting the summit, Russia, Turkey, Qatar, Palestine, Iraq and Lebanon also declined to participate, further highlighting the fallacy of Iran’s supposed international isolation.
Andrea Dessì is a Senior Fellow within IAI’s Mediterranean and Middle East programme and Editorial Director of IAI’s english-language series IAI Commentaries. He has worked extensively on US and European foreign policy towards the Middle East with a particular focus on the diplomatic and military history of the Arab-Israeli conflict, US policy towards Israel and Washington’s alliance frameworks in the Middle East. His research interests include security studies, the geopolitics of the Middle East and the intersection between global and regional trends and developments. Andrea holds a Ph.D. in International Relations from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) with a thesis on the US-Israel relationship during the 1980s. He has worked with IAI since 2011 and has contributed to a number of EU-funded projects and research tasks (FP7 & H2020).
If the EU is serious about support for Palestinian rights then Palestine will emerge as a key litmus test for the EU’s credibility.