Joseph Borrell He concluded his last Middle East tour in Lebanon on Thursday before ending his mandate as High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs in October. In Beirut, he met with a weakened Lebanese government that is demanding the implementation of Resolution 1701, the UN Security Council resolution with which in 2006 It was agreed that Hezbollah would permanently withdraw north of the Litani River. in exchange for Israel ceasing its attacks towards the south.
The head of European diplomacy transmitted to his Lebanese counterpart, Abdallah Buhabibits commitment to the “full implementation” of the resolution to “pave the way for a comprehensive solution, which includes the demarcation of land borders and allows for the return of the population and reconstruction in the affected areas.”
Borrell recalled that since the beginning of the war, more than 4,000 residential buildings have been completely destroyed in southern Lebanon and more than 110,000 people have been forced to leave their homes. “And the same thing is happening on the other side of the Blue Line – the 2006 armistice line between Israel and Lebanon,” he noted. In northern Israel, there are about 60,000 displaced people.
Asked whether the EU had a plan for de-escalation on Lebanon’s southern border, where 589 deaths have been recorded since last October, Borrell replied: “I don’t have a magic wand. What I have is the political will to use the tools,” diplomatic and financial capabilities to persuade the actors to end the escalation and the war.
Before Lebanon, Borrell visited Egypt earlier in the week. Speaking to his Arab counterparts, he acknowledged his “disappointment” with some EU member states: “I have never seen a subject as controversial among Europeans as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict”he said at a meeting of Arab League foreign ministers, which was reinforced by the presence of the Turkish chancellor, Hakan Fidan.
From Cairo, he flew to Beirut on Wednesday. In Lebanon, he went to Naqoura, on the border with Israel, where the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) is based. But from the land of cedars he will return to Brussels without setting foot in Tel Aviv: according to the newspaper Yedioth AhronothThe Israeli government did not allow an official visit to the foreign minister, Israel Katz.
During the last eleven months of war, Borrell’s calls to sanction far-right ministers Benjamin Netanyahu They distanced the head of European diplomacy from important sectors of Israeli politics, including the ruling party. On the same Thursday, after he declared at a press conference that “There will be no end to the conflict without justice for the Palestinians”Borrell expressed his “indignation” in X in response to Israeli airstrikes on a UN-run school in the central Gaza Strip, which killed at least 19 people.
Outraged by the murder of 6 people @UNRWA after IL strikes hit – for the fifth time – a school in Nuseirat housing 12,000 displaced people
Disregard for the fundamental principles of IHL, in particular the protection of civilians, cannot and must not be accepted by the international community.
– Josep Borrell Fontelles (@JosepBorrellF) September 12, 2024
The EU High Representative took advantage of his meeting with Minister Buhabib to stress that, for Lebanon to ensure stability and peace, “it is necessary to restore the functioning of national institutions, including the presidency of the republic and the council of ministers.”
Since October 2022, the presidency of Israel’s northern neighbor has been vacant and Lebanese political forces have been unable to agree on a solution to the presidential vacuum. “There is no way to defend Lebanese interests abroad without being stable and united internally,” Borrell reminded the minister of a government in the grip of a serious legitimacy crisis that has for years lost control of certain areas to the Shiite militia party.
For his part, the Lebanese Minister of Foreign Affairs mentioned the aspects in which Beirut would like greater collaboration with Brussels. Among them, the return to Syria of refugees from a war that is coming to an end. In Lebanon, a country of 5.5 million inhabitants as big as Navarre, There are also one and a half million Syrian refugees living there.. “Lebanon welcomes the reassessment of the EU policy towards Syria, at the request of eight of its members. The EU can play a constructive role in finding durable solutions for a rapid recovery and in encouraging the safe and dignified return of Syrians, most of them economically displaced, to their country of origin,” Buhabib said at the joint press conference.
Borrell also met with the Lebanese Prime Minister, Najib Mikati; the head of the country’s army, Joseph Aoun; and the President of Parliament, Nabih Berriof the Shiite party Amal “Hope, in Spanish”. During his meeting with the head of European diplomacy, Berri praised Borrell’s humanitarian position and his recognition of the reality of the Israeli aggression, which has lasted almost a year. He stressed that Lebanon is not seeking war, but that it has the right and the capacity to defend itself.
The raid against Hezbollah
Borrell, who did not meet with any Israeli representative during his last tour of the Middle East, said in Beirut that, for now, “the worst” in Lebanon has been avoided. Therefore, even if “the announced global war in southern Lebanon with invasion” has not taken place, “the threat is still there and the daily destruction and bombings continue.”
This week, Israeli Defense Minister, Yoav Gallantannounced that his army was preparing for a ground invasion of Hezbollah-controlled areas of Lebanon. During a ground combat exercise on Tuesday, he explained that the movement of his troops is in response to the fact that Gaza war’s centre of gravity ‘shifts north’Even though the Israel Defense Forces’ (IDF) mission in the Gaza Strip “is not over,” Gallant told his detachments at the gates of Lebanon in a video posted on X.
The ground invasion is something that northerners have been demanding from Netanyahu for months. On Wednesday afternoon, Israel reported receiving more than 60 rockets from the Shiite armed group in one hour. Adding to the discontent of the 60,000 displaced Israelis is the fact that without ground intervention, the army has also proven unable to achieve its military objectives. After a months-long exchange of fire in which Hezbollah leaders were specifically eliminated, Tel Aviv’s intention remains to besiege the armed group’s stronghold in southern Lebanon.
