The Portuguese Minister of Foreign Affairs today asked Israel and Hamas for courage to resume the truce, which expired this morning, and begin dialogue with a view to a “two-state solution.”
“It is very important, in a very tense situation, of deep mistrust between the parties, that there is courage, on both sides, to return to the ceasefire and that is the call we have been making,” said João Gomes Cravinho, who He is in Dubai accompanying the Prime Minister at the 28th United Nations Conference on Climate Change (COP28).
After a week of truce, Israel and the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas announced today the end of the ceasefire and the resumption of fighting in the Gaza Strip.
In statements to journalists, the minister once again insisted on a “two-state solution” and maintained that the most important thing is to return to the “cessation of hostilities to begin discussing the future.”
The interruption of fighting began a week ago, on November 24, initially for four days until it was prolonged with the help of Qatar and Egypt, mediating countries, but ended today at 07:00 (05:00 in Lisbon).
During the truce, Hamas and other Gaza militants released more than 100 hostages, most of them Israelis, in exchange for 240 Palestinians held in Israeli prisons.
“We all lost from this situation, which further highlights the need to de-escalate the situation in the Middle East, the need to end the war in Ukraine with the withdrawal of Russian forces,” added João Gomes Cravinho.
Referring to the theme of the summit, in which he is participating between today and Saturday, and also to the statements of the Brazilian president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, the Minister of Foreign Affairs defended that the planet needs investments and “these investments are not going in the right direction.”
Lula da Silva, in a speech at a COP28 segment aimed at political leaders, criticized the amount spent on weapons citing, without specifying the source, that last year the world spent more than two billion dollars. [cerca de 1,8 biliões de euros] in weapons, an amount that could be invested in the fight against hunger and climate change.
Source: TSF
