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EU summit fails to approve funding for Ukraine

UAE busts alleged terrorist network

ABU DHABI: United Arab Emirates authorities yesterday said they had dismantled a “terrorist network” funded and operated by Lebanon’s Hezbollah and Iran, and arrested its members. According to the state news agency, the network was involved in “money laundering, financing terrorism and threatening national security”. There was no immediate comment from Hezbollah or Iran. Since the outbreak of the US-Israeli war on Iran in February, Tehran has launched large-scale missile and drone attacks across the Gulf, with the UAE among the most heavily targeted countries. Emirati officials say hundreds of strikes have been directed at the country, hitting sites including oil facilities, ports and areas near major urban centers. The UAE has long opposed political Islamist groups. Iran-backed Hezbollah entered the conflict on March 2, firing at Israel from Lebanon, prompting Israel to launch extensive airstrikes on Hezbollah targets across Lebanon. “The network had been operating within the country under a fictitious commercial cover and sought to infiltrate the national economy and carry out external schemes threatening the country’s financial stability,” the UAE state news agency said. – Reuters Kuwait refinery comes under fire KUWAIT CITY: Drone attacks caused fires at Kuwait’s Mina Al-Ahmadi oil refinery yesterday, state media reported, as authorities in several Gulf states said they were responding to attacks from Iran. Iran has stepped up attacks on Gulf energy infrastructure in recent days, hitting refineries and the world’s biggest gas hub in Qatar, as Tehran retaliated over Israeli strikes on its South Pars gas field. The official Kuwait News Agency, citing the national oil company, said “several hostile drone attacks” hit the Mina Al Ahmadi refinery, causing fires but no casualties. It added that firefighters were working to contain the blazes while “several refinery units were shut down”. Earlier, Bahrain’s interior ministry said shrapnel from an “Iranian aggression” caused a fire at a warehouse, which was brought under control and resulted in no injuries. In Kuwait, an army statement said air defences were “responding to hostile missile and drone threats”, while the UAE state media reported “incoming missile and drone threats from Iran”. – AFP US$7 billion weapons funding for Emirates MEXICO CITY: The Trump administration has approved about US$7 billion (RM27.6 billion) in weapons for the United Arab Emirates that the State Department is not required to announce to the public under rules governing US arms exports, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday. That is in addition to arms sales to three Middle East countries worth more than US$16.5 billion, also announced on Thursday, the Journal said. The unannounced deals include the sale of Patriot PAC-3 Missiles worth about US$5.6 billion and CH-47 Chinook helicopters costing about US$1.32 billion to the UAE, the Journal said, citing US officials, adding that the sales were not announced publicly because they expanded previously agreed arms deals. – Reuters

o Hungarian PM refuses to lift veto on 90b-euro loan

their intent over the funds from next month, with Budapest and Bratislava the two holdouts. Leaders agreed to revisit the matter, which requires unanimity, at their next planned meeting in April. At the root of the standoff is a weeks-long dispute in which landlocked Hungary and Slovakia accuse Ukraine of stalling on pipeline repairs, while Zelensky has branded linking the issue to support for Kyiv’s war effort “blackmail”. The European Commission moved this week to unblock the situation by sending a team to help restore oil transit, but Orban dismissed the scheme as a “fairy tale”. Although Orban denies it, many of his counterparts see his blocking as squarely motivated by national politics. “He’s using Ukraine as a weapon in his election campaign, and it’s not good. We had a deal,” said Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo. – AFP

posted on X after the talks, which Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky addressed by video call to plead for the funds’ release. Orban had made it clear he planned to play hardball, as he leans into anti-EU and anti-Ukrainian narratives ahead of close-fought national elections on April 12. The stance has exasperated his fellow EU leaders, and despite concerted pressure from his counterparts, he refused to budge. “I held my ground and we are exactly where we were this morning; if there is oil, there will be money.” EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas earlier said it was “really, really time” to show support for Ukraine by unlocking the funding for this year and the next, which Hungary’s leader signed up to in December along with the rest of the bloc. Zelensky doubled down, saying: “This is critical for us. It is a resource to protect lives.” However, only 25 of the bloc’s 27 leaders endorsed summit conclusions reaffirming

BRUSSELS: EU leaders failed to persuade Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban to lift his block on a massive loan to support Ukraine’s war effort at summit talks on Thursday, leaving the much-needed funding in limbo. Moscow’s closest partner in the bloc, Orban has long resisted helping Kyiv to repel Russia’s invasion, stalling EU aid and repeated rounds of sanctions. This time around, he is holding up a 90-billion-euro (RM407 billion) loan as leverage in a feud over damage to a pipeline running through Ukraine, which has choked the flow of Russian oil to Hungary and Slovakia. “No oil, no money,” the Hungarian leader

EMERGENCY EVACUATION ... A UN vehicle leads ambulances carrying war-wounded individuals and patients from Gaza for treatment abroad through the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt. – REUTERSPIC

Iran attacks Israel after Netanyahu speech TEL AVIV: Iran launched multiple rounds of missiles towards Israel on Thursday, after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared the Islamic republic has been “decimated” by war. Israel’s military said it had identified three rounds of missile fire in the hour and a half preceding midnight (2200 GMT), and another a few hours later. AFP reporters heard several loud blasts over Jerusalem as air raid sirens rang out across the city during one of the earlier attacks. The Magen David Adom emergency services reported no casualties, but police said there was damage in several locations. Israeli media said shrapnel hit the northern city of Haifa and an educational institution in its suburbs, causing damage but no casualties. In a press conference on Thursday,

Netanyahu said Israel and the United States were “winning” the war that began when the allies launched strikes on Iran. “We are taking action to destroy the industries that make it possible to build missiles. “Iran no longer has the capacity to enrich uranium and manufacture ballistic missiles.” – AFP