The head of diplomacy of the European Union (EU), Josep Borrell, warned Israel this Saturday that no one will emerge victorious from a regional conflict and considered it imperative to avoid Lebanon’s involvement.
“It is imperative to avoid a regional escalation in the Middle East, it is absolutely necessary to prevent Lebanon from being dragged into a regional conflict,” said Borrell in Beirut, quoted by the French agency AFP.
The warning was made in the context of clashes in southern Lebanon between the Lebanese group Hezbollah, an ally of the Palestinian Hamas in Gaza, and the Israeli army.
“I also send this message to Israel: no one will emerge victorious from a regional conflict,” said Borrell, during a press conference with his Lebanese counterpart, Abdallah Bou Habib.
Borrell is in Lebanon at a time of tension between Hezbollah and Israel, after a bomb attack attributed to the Jewish state killed Hamas number two Saleh al Arouri on the outskirts of Beirut on Tuesday.
Hezbollah said in a statement that it launched “62 missiles of different types” this Saturday morning against an Israeli military base “as part of the initial response to the assassination of the great leader Saleh al-Arouri.”
The war between Israel and Hamas began after the extremist group killed about 1,200 people and took two hundred hostages on Israeli soil on October 7, according to authorities.
In retaliation, Israel vowed to destroy Hamas and has since continued bombing the Gaza Strip, a small, densely populated territory, upon which it launched a ground offensive on October 27.
Israeli military operations have caused more than 22,700 deaths in Gaza, according to figures updated today by Hamas health structures.
The High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy called on Israel to use methods to eliminate Hamas that do not involve the death of “so many innocent people.”
“War also has rules and there are international humanitarian norms that must be respected. As I have said several times, one horror does not justify another,” he declared, quoted by the Spanish agency EFE.
“Israel declared a war to eradicate Hamas, but there must be another way to eradicate Hamas that does not involve the death of so many innocent people,” he said.
Like Israel, the EU and the United States consider Hamas a terrorist organization.
Borrell insisted on the importance of dialogue and maintained that diplomatic channels must remain open.
“To send a signal that war is not the only option, but the worst option,” he added.
Borrell met today with the head of the UN peacekeeping mission in Lebanon (UNIFIL), Spanish General Aroldo Lázaro, with the Lebanese Prime Minister, Najib Mikati, and with the Minister of Foreign Affairs.
The head of European diplomacy is expected to visit Saudi Arabia on Sunday.
Source: TSF
