2024-01-06 15:43:11
Josep Borrell and Nayib Mikati – JOSEP BORRELL / X
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Borrell, visiting Beirut, considers it “imperative” that the country not be dragged into war
MADRID, 6 Ene. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The acting Prime Minister of Lebanon, Nayib Mikati, warned this Saturday the top diplomat of the European Union, Josep Borrell, that a large-scale attack by Israel on Lebanese territory, particularly in the south, would automatically lead to a “regional explosion.” ” of the conflict in Gaza between Israel and Hamas.
Borrell visits Lebanon this Saturday amid a spike in hostilities between Hezbollah militias and the Israeli Army following the death of the number two in the Hamas political office, Salé al Aruri, which occurred this week during an attack in Beirut, attributed to Israel. , who has not made any statements on the matter.
Hezbollah has been exchanging artillery fire with Israel since practically the beginning of the conflict on October 7, but this Saturday it launched at least 60 rockets against an Israeli military base in what the militia party described as an “initial response” to the death of Al Aruri.
“We pursue peace. We do not defend war. We only want stability and we are establishing all necessary contacts, because any large-scale bombing in southern Lebanon will lead the region to a comprehensive explosion,” Mikati warned in comments collected by ‘L’Orient le Jour’.
During the meeting in Beirut, Borrell agreed with the Lebanese Prime Minister that it is “imperative” that Lebanon not be dragged into war. “I want to send the message to Israel that no one is going to emerge as the winner of a conflict like this,” Borrell said in statements reported by the same media.
The high representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy has also met with the president of the Lebanese Parliament, Nahib Berri, and with his counterpart in Foreign Affairs, Abdullah Bou Habib, before having a face to face with the head of the UN peacekeeping mission for Lebanon (UNIFIL), General Aroldo Lazaro.
“I have been informed by the general about the current escalation of risks along the Blue Line” that delimits both countries, Borrell said, before reaffirming “the EU’s firm support for the United Nations mission, which plays a crucial role in its prevention and mitigation.”
“A CHANGE IN THE MIDDLE EAST”
Subsequently, Borrell held a meeting with Bu Habib, after which he once again insisted on the need to “avoid a regional escalation in the Middle East.” It is absolutely necessary to prevent Lebanon from being dragged into a regional conflict. “It’s the last thing Lebanon needs,” he said.
“I am here at a time when we are seeing a worrying intensification of the exchange of fire across the Blue Line, on the border between Lebanon and Israel. I believe that war can be avoided and should be avoided. Diplomacy can prevail to achieve a best solution,” he argued.
Thus, he emphasized that “no one wins in a regional conflict.” “I also send this message to Israel. No one will win from a regional conflict,” she said, before insisting that she is in Beirut to “analyze the situation and contribute to a way out of the crisis.”
Borrell has stressed that “diplomatic channels have to be open to signal that war is not the only option, but the worst option.” “The entire international community has to work for change in the Middle East,” he defended.
“We cannot continue the sad and horrible record of the last year or decades. We cannot continue to witness the suffering of women, children and other innocent civilians in Gaza. We cannot continue to see the increase in settler violence against civilians in West Bank,” he said.
In this sense, he has called for “moving forward towards an end to the suffering of civilians in Gaza and the release of the hostages (kidnapped by Hamas during their attacks on October 7”) and has requested that the resolutions of the Security Council of United Nations on Lebanon.
“The situation in Gaza is more than catastrophic. I am shocked by the suffering of too many innocent civilians. People are not only being bombed, they are now starving,” he said, while defending the need for “a pause that could become permanent” and “an increase in support for Gaza.
“Even war has laws and the laws of Humanitarian Law must be respected. As I have said many times, one horror does not justify another. We have to understand that only peace will bring security to the Middle East,” he stressed.
In this way, he asked “not to treat Gaza as something isolated from the West Bank and East Jerusalem” and recalled that “it is part of a broad ‘Palestinian question’.” “It is an integral part of the territories occupied by Israel since 1967 and must be part of the future Palestinian State,” she noted.
Borrell has opted to “redouble efforts to relaunch the peace process.” “Israel has declared a goal to eradicate Hamas. There must be another way to eradicate Hamas that does not result in so many innocent people being killed,” he said.
“The only way is to create a Palestinian State that offers a horizon of hope to the Palestinians,” he said, something for which 172 countries have voted in favor in the UN General Assembly, which represents 90 percent of all the member states of the UN. “We will spare no effort to make the two-state solution a reality,” she concluded.
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