The two officials are reportedly engaged in a tacit turf war while failing to coordinate a response to the Middle East escalation
The US-Israeli strikes on Iran have exposed a deepening rift at the top of the EU, as Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and the bloc’s top diplomat, Kaja Kallas, find themselves on a “collision course” in a backroom power struggle, Politico reported on Tuesday, citing sources.
Despite a flurry of EU diplomatic activity and public statements after Israel and the US launched a wave of strikes on Iran on Saturday, von der Leyen and Kallas did not speak to each other directly over the weekend, an unnamed official told Politico.
Publicly, Kallas published a solo statement on seeking diplomatic solutions to the conflict half an hour before von der Leyen issued a call for “maximum restraint.”
“The only way the EU can have relevance in this crisis is when we stay united,” one EU official told Politico, while another said it is “no secret and nothing new” that von der Leyen’s team is content “to sideline Kallas.”
Politico noted that the rift between the two EU officials became evident last year, when von der Leyen pushed to create a new Directorate-General for the Middle East, North Africa, and the Gulf under the European Commission’s purview – a move widely seen as an effort to pull influence away from Kallas’ branch.
One EU official told Politico that the new body is expected to play a “central” role in shaping the EU’s Iran strategy, despite Kallas’ department formally being in charge of all foreign affairs.
Since the escalation of the Middle East conflict, the EU has largely sought to stay aligned with Washington, refraining from condemning US-Israeli strikes on Iran. Top EU officials remained conspicuously silent on a strike that killed more than 160 people at an Iranian girls’ school in Minab, which Tehran blamed on Israel and the US alike.
The friction within the EU predates the Iran conflict. During Israel’s war in Gaza, von der Leyen’s initially staunch support for the Jewish state drew pushback from Josep Borrell, Kallas’ predecessor, who publicly stated that the commission president should not speak for the bloc on the matter. The EU subsequently remained paralyzed, unable to agree on sanctions or trade suspensions.
