NEW YORK, (PIC)
The European Union’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, expressed his regret that there is no force – including the United States – capable of stopping Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu from continuing his war on Gaza and Lebanon.
Borrell told reporters while attending the United Nations General Assembly on Friday that “what we are doing is exerting all diplomatic pressure to cease fire, but no one seems to have the ability to stop Netanyahu, neither in Gaza nor in the West Bank.”
Borrell supported the French and US initiative for a 21-day ceasefire in Lebanon, which Israel ignored while intensifying its strikes on Hezbollah targets.
Borrell said that Netanyahu was clear that the Israelis will not stop until Hezbollah is destroyed, just as is happening in the war that has been going on for nearly a year in Gaza against Hamas.
“If the destruction is meant to be the same as what happened with Hamas, then we are going to a long war,” he added.
The EU foreign affairs chief has called once again for diversifying diplomatic efforts away from the United States, which has tried in vain to reach a truce in Gaza that includes the release of captives.
He said that the United States cannot be relied upon alone to reach ceasefire, as it has tried several times and failed to do so.
“I do not see the US ready to start a new negotiation process that could lead to another Camp David,” referring to the talks held at the US presidential resort in 2000 in which former President Bill Clinton unsuccessfully sought to broker a historic agreement to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Netanyahu pledged in a speech to the United Nations on Friday to achieve Israel’s goals against Hezbollah.
Since Monday, the Israeli occupation army has been launching its most violent and extensive attack on Lebanon since the start of confrontations with Hezbollah about a year ago, killing 726 people and wounding 2,173 others, while its war on Gaza has been going on since October 7, 2023, leaving more than 137,000 Palestinians dead and wounded.
