President Aleksandar Vučić declared a halt to Serbian arms exports to Israel on Monday, June 23rd. He has cited the most recent attack on Iran’s nascent nuclear programme as the reason.
Vučić proudly told a Belgrade press conference that Serbia was the only European country to export arms to Israel after the October 7 Hamas pogrom (a claim which may not stand up to further scrutiny). Serbia exported €42.3 million worth of arms and ammunition there in 2024.
The latest policy shift was rationalised by Vučić as treating Operation Rising Lion as crossing a red line for Serbia. But it was likely informed by Iran’s warning that any country arming the Israeli military would be “deemed complicit in the act of aggression against Iran and turn into a legitimate target.”
This prompted Serbia’s opposition leader Dragan Đilas to attack Vučić as a danger to the country:
In other words, we have a president who is not normal, who brags about doing this. Others are exporting too, but at least they keep quiet, and you boast about it.
Vučić’s ruling party is often seen as trying to multitask politically, by defending Serbian sovereignty, remaining neutral towards Russia and refining the country’s bid for European Union accession. Tragically, Serbia’s increasingly equivocal position on Israel now brings it much more in line with mainstream EU foreign policy.
