The European Union’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs, Josep Borrell, warned on Monday that “We are on the brink of total war” in Lebanon, after Israel killed nearly 500 people and wounded 1,600 in attacks carried out during the day, as part of the clashes between the Israeli army and the Lebanese Shiite militia Hezbollah.
“The catastrophe continues and the escalation in Lebanon is extremely dangerous and worrying. I was in Lebanon a few days ago, just before the explosion of electronic devices. This is sowing terror among the Lebanese population. I can say that we are almost in a total war, “we are seeing more military attacks, more collateral damage, more victims,” he said at a press conference.
Borrell regretted that “A large number of children and women” diedwhile “through the television screens we see thousands of people fleeing to the north” of Lebanon, “causing major traffic jams in the transport system as they flee.” “The attacks will continue and the bombings too,” he observed from New York, where the 79th session of the UN General Assembly is being held this week.
“But now we see how civilians are paying an intolerable and unacceptable price,” he said, stressing that the first death tolls “escape any consideration,” because the explosions occur “without taking into account the environment in which they explode”: “Whether in a shopping center, in a square, in the street, in a hospital, anywhere, these are both selective and random attacks,” he criticized.
The head of European diplomacy explained that they were “selective in their objectives” and “random in their consequences”, and that they took advantage of the opportunity to “condemn” these actions, stressing that “civilians are paying a high price” and that a “full-scale war” “must be avoided” by renewing “tense efforts at diplomatic mediation.”
“I think we still have hope (…) but the worst expectations are becoming reality,” he said. Similarly, he maintained that “peace is necessary in the Middle East, because the ongoing escalation poses a danger to the entire region,” while “the path to peace begins with a single step,” that of a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.
However, he acknowledged that “Despite all the diplomatic capabilities deployed, nothing could stop the war”since “both sides are postponing peace negotiations”, since “they pretend to do so, but in reality, for one reason or another, there is no ceasefire agreement”.
Borrell called for an improvement in the situation on the Blue Line, “as well as in Gaza,” because “they are not different, they are strongly interconnected.” “What is happening in Gaza triggers other war scenarios in Lebanon, in the Red Sea and, unfortunately, and this is not talked about enough, in the West Bank.”
Asked about Israel’s closure of the Qatari television station Al Jazeera’s office in the West Bank city of Ramallah, he said it was “very bad news” that should “certainly” be condemned: “I was providing a valuable service of informing the people,” he said.
“Israel has imposed the longest blackout in a war in history on Gaza. Al Jazeera is paying a high price for the number of journalists killed. And this is something that everyone has condemned. But believe me, I do not have the capacity to achieve this change in behavior,” he said.
He recalled, however, that this situation “leads to a lack of information about what is happening inside Gaza or what is happening in the West Bank.” “This is a fact. I am not making this up. This is a blind situation in which there are no witnesses who can explain and show what is happening,” he criticized.
