Borrell says in Lebanon that a large-scale war in the Middle East has been avoided

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BRUSSELS, September 12 (EUROPA PRESS) –

The High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Policy, Josep Borrell, said this Thursday from Lebanon that the Middle East region has avoided a large-scale conflict despite the “drums of war” between Hezbollah and Israel, although he indicated that pressure must be maintained to pacify the area.

“We have been working and, for the moment, the announced all-out war in southern Lebanon with an invasion has not happened. This is good news (…) The threat persists and the destruction and daily bombings continue, but we have avoided the worst,” he said in statements from Beirut alongside the Lebanese Foreign Minister, Abdallah Bou Habib.

In this regard, and despite pointing out the “drums of war” in the region, Borrell has insisted that “war is never inevitable” and that pressure must continue to be exerted to achieve “global peace” in the Middle East, referring in particular to the war in Gaza.

In his opinion, this is due to the ability of the Palestinian people to have a future based on their own State and freedom, as well as to pacifying the situation in the West Bank and Gaza, since he has explained that the situation in Palestine is closely linked to the crisis on the border between Lebanon and Israel and to other conflicts such as free navigation in the Red Sea, which the Houthis are jeopardizing with their attacks on merchant ships.

“We are working on all these fronts, and the result is certainly not 100%. Unfortunately, the massacres in Gaza continue, unfortunately the threat on the Lebanese border continues, unfortunately the colonisation in the West Bank continues. But we must not give up,” he stressed.

The head of European diplomacy ended his visit to Lebanon on Thursday, a country he arrived in from Egypt on his tour of the Middle East to promote ceasefire negotiations in the Strip, led by Egypt, Qatar and the United States and which, according to Borrell, are stalled by the lack of interest of Hamas and Israel to end the hostilities.