BRUSSELS: EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell has said the world must speed up efforts for a political solution to stop the fighting in Lebanon and avoid a “conflagration.”
AFP reported that he expressed the statement following a conference on aid for Lebanon in France. He added that the first measure needed was a “truce” between Hezbollah and Israel.
Josep Borrell said that they are now engaged in a race against time between the possible initiative of a political process in Lebanon and a generalized conflagration with countless costs. He maintained that nothing will be possible without a suspension of hostilities in the region.
War in Lebanon
Borrell stated that once fighting was stopped, Lebanon needed to arrange long-postponed presidential polls as soon as possible. He added that the Lebanese Army must become the only military force present in the southern part of the country, where Israel and Hezbollah are fighting.
The EU foreign policy chief said that a UN peacekeeping mission in the region must also be strengthened. However, global calls for an end to fighting have so far failed in order to end the ongoing fighting in the area. The ongoing war in Lebanon has killed around 1,580 people, AFP reported.
READ ALSO: Israeli Strike Kills 3 journalists in Lebanon
Earlier, Lebanese official media reported Friday that separate Israeli attacks killed three journalists in eastern Lebanon and flattened compounds in southern suburbs of Beirut.
Lebanon’s official National News Agency (NNA) reported that three journalists have been killed in an Israeli strike on Hasbaya. It added that Israeli military planes struck at 3:30 am near the Syrian border. Local media reported that the air attack hit a hotel in Hasbaya, around 50 km south of Beirut.
