The head of European diplomacy, Josep Borrell, warned yesterday, Monday, that the escalation between Israel and the Lebanese Hezbollah threatens to plunge the entire Middle East into a “total war.”
“I can say that we are almost on the brink of total war,” said the EU High Representative, who was due to participate in a meeting of his G7 counterparts on the sidelines of the “high-level week” of the UN General Assembly in New York, which formally begins today.
“If this is not almost a war situation, I don’t know how you would describe it,” he insisted, referring particularly to the heavy toll of civilian casualties in Lebanon.
Israeli airstrikes yesterday against hundreds of Hezbollah positions cost the lives of 492 people in Lebanon, including 35 children, according to the country’s authorities, marking the deadliest day since hostilities erupted at the border, the day after the outbreak of war in the Gaza Strip between Israel and Hamas.
Mr. Borrell called for a ceasefire along the so-called blue line that separates northern Israel from southern Lebanon, the stronghold of Hezbollah.
The UN blue line has separated areas where Lebanese armed forces are located from those where Israeli armed forces have been since 2000.
Just like in the Gaza Strip, which has suffered unimaginable damage and faces a humanitarian disaster after nearly a year of war, the High Representative condemned the fact that civilians in Lebanon “are paying an unbearable, unacceptable price.”
“It is time to do something. Everyone must do what we can to stop” the war, added Mr. Borrell, although he acknowledged that diplomatic efforts so far to end the conflict in the Gaza Strip have failed.