European Union foreign policy official Josep Borrell said that if what he described as the ongoing tragedy in Gaza does not end soon, the situation may end up igniting in the entire Middle East, calling for “imposing a solution from outside” to settle the conflict.
Borrell said, in a speech he delivered during a diplomatic conference in the Portuguese capital, Lisbon, on Wednesday, that “what we have learned over the last thirty years and what we are learning now from the tragedy in Gaza is that the solution must be imposed from the outside.”
He added that peace will not be achieved permanently “unless the international community engages intensively to achieve it and impose a solution,” referring to an effort in which the United States, Europeans, and Arabs participate, he said.
A day after Saleh Al-Arouri, deputy head of the political bureau of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas), was assassinated in an attack in the southern suburb of Beirut, Borrell – who was planning to go to Lebanon on Thursday – indicated that he might cancel this visit.
He added in a press conference following his speech, “What happened yesterday with the killing of a Hamas leader is an additional factor that may cause the conflict to escalate.”
Media outlets in Israel – which did not officially claim responsibility for Al-Arouri’s assassination – said that its forces and security institutions were on high alert in anticipation of a major revenge operation by the Palestinian resistance or Lebanese Hezbollah.