Slovenia breaks EU silence, halts all arms transfers to and from Israel

According to TRT News, the statement noted that since October 2023, due to the Israeli regime’s war on Gaza, Slovenia has not issued any licenses for the export of weapons or military equipment to Israel. It continued: “We are the first European country to prohibit the import, export, and transfer of arms from or to Israel.”

The statement emphasized that Slovenia is taking this step independently, as the European Union has been unable to adopt concrete measures due to internal divisions and disagreements.

It added: “We had previously warned that if the EU failed to act, we would take measures independently.”

The statement further underlined that additional measures against the occupying Israeli regime will be introduced by the Slovenian government in the coming weeks: “In the midst of the devastating war in Gaza—where people are dying due to a deliberately orchestrated denial of humanitarian aid—it is the responsibility of every country to take action, even if that means going one step further than others.”

Previously, in another unprecedented move within the EU, Slovenia had declared Israeli ministers Itamar Ben-Gvir (National Security) and Bezalel Smotrich (Finance) persona non grata and imposed sanctions on them for their statements encouraging the genocide of Palestinians in Gaza.