The EU has received significant support from Türkiye in facilitating the evacuation of EU citizens from Iran amid escalation between Tel Aviv and Tehran, an EU official says.

Christian Berger, director of the European External Action Service (EEAS) Crisis Response Centre, praised Türkiye's role in enabling smooth land crossings and onward travel. "We have had great support from the Turkish authorities to make sure that people can cross easily and then get connecting flights from the eastern part of the country to the international airport," he told reporters in Brussels.

Due to the absence of an EU delegation in Tehran, Berger said the bloc has faced limitations on the ground and is relying on coordination led by the rotating EU presidency, currently held by Poland. "We are a little bit handicapped in Iran because we have no delegation in Tehran," he said.

Over the past three days, several evacuation convoys have successfully crossed land borders into Türkiye, Azerbaijan, Armenia, and Turkmenistan, he noted, without providing an exact number of evacuees.