Borrell’s mission to Lebanon to see how to ease Middle East tensions

Brussels – The three-day mission of Josep Borrell to Lebanon begins today (Jan. 5). He will meet with the Speaker of Parliament Nabih Berri, Prime Minister Najib Mikati, Foreign Affairs Minister Abdallah Bou Habib, and the commander of the Lebanese Armed Forces, General Joseph Aoun.

The visit – which will last until Sunday – will also see the EU High Representative for Foreign and Security Policy engaged in talks with the head of the mission and the commander of the United Nations force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), General Aroldo Lazaro. 

According to a statement from the European External Action Service, the mission will be an opportunity to “discuss all aspects of the situation in and around Gaza, including its impact on the region, particularly the situation at the Israeli-Lebanese border, as well as the importance of avoiding regional escalation and sustaining the flow of humanitarian assistance to civilians, which the European Union has quadrupled to 100 million euros.” Borrell will  again stress the need to pursue diplomatic efforts with regional leaders in order to create the conditions for achieving “a just and lasting peace between Israel, Palestine and in the region,”  the statement adds.

To ease tensions. The European diplomacy chief’s mission comes at a particularly sensitive time in Middle East tensions between Israel and Hamas, after a large explosion in Beirut, Lebanon’s capital, on Tuesday afternoon attributed to an Israeli bombing aimed at an office of the Palestinian armed group Hamas, which killed deputy Hamas chief Saleh. Arouri’s killing has heightened tensions between Hezbollah, a close ally of Hamas in Lebanon, and Israel. The war between Israel and Hamas and the Israeli offensive in the Gaza Strip have been going on since last Oct. 7, after a Hamas attack considered by many to be unprecedented on Israeli territory in which more than 1,000 civilians lost their lives and more than 200 were kidnapped, in response to which Israel launched bombardments and a ground siege of the Gaza Strip, in which more than 20,000 people have died.