Russia: EU Uses Iran to Divert Attention from Greenland Issue

EU officials have largely shifted their focus to the protests in Iran to distract the public from Washington's claims over Greenland.

"Why not focus all your efforts now on Greenland? Don't you think the situation in Iran has become a convenient pretext for EU officials to distract their people from the fact that an island is being taken from them?" said Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova, quoted by ANTARA from Sputnik, Thursday, January 15.

"The issue of Greenland should be the main concern of Brussels, although it is not currently so," he added.

The Russian foreign ministry spokesman gave an ironic advice to EU officials who are now facing US claims over Greenland, saying they should recall their own reaction to the events in Crimea in 2014.

"I would like to suggest... to help them now, their own words from 2014. Let them see what they said about the situation around Crimea. It will be very useful for them to revive their enthusiasm about the Greenland topic," Zakharova said.

He also suggested that EU officials should ask themselves why the situation in other countries is more of a concern to them than the situation in EU member states.

Crimea was incorporated into Russia in 2014 after a coup in Kiev, after 96.77 percent of the peninsula's residents voted in favor of the move in a referendum.

US President Donald Trump has repeatedly said Greenland should be part of the US, citing its strategic importance to the national security and defence of the "free world," including from China and Russia.

Danish and Greenlandic authorities have warned the US not to seize the island, saying they expect respect for their shared territorial integrity.

The island was a Danish colony until 1953. The island remained part of the Kingdom of Denmark after gaining autonomy in 2009, with the ability to govern itself and determine policies in its own country.