- Web Desk
- 3 Hours ago
Jordan says Israel killing peace prospects, France sees complete disaster
MOSCOW: Jordan’s foreign minister said Wednesday that Israel’s assault on Gaza had caused “massacres and starvation” and that its wider actions were “killing all prospects” for peace in the Middle East, as Germany too voiced its concerns over the actions of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government.
On the other hand, French President Emmanuel Macron said that Israel’s “military offensive” to conquer Gaza City “can only lead to a complete disaster for both peoples,” after Israel’s defence minister authorised the call-up of around 60,000 reservists.
Israel’s plan “will drag the region into a permanent war,” the French president posted on social media, reiterating his call for an “international stabilisation mission”.
His comments came after Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz approved a plan to conquer Gaza City, an urban area home to hundreds of thousands of people in the north of the Palestinian territory.
Wednesday also saw Israel approving a major settlement project in an area of the occupied West Bank that the international community has warned threatens the viability of a future Palestinian state.
Read more: Israel approves West Bank settlement project despite opposition
Most of Gaza’s population has been displaced since the war began, many repeatedly, according to the United Nations.
That’s why the Palestinian Authority (PA) slammed approval of the settlement project, saying it undermined the chances of a two-state solution.
The approval of the project in the area known as E1 “fragments… geographic and demographic unity, entrenching the division of the occupied West Bank into isolated areas and cantons that are disconnected from one another, turning them into something akin to real prisons,” the PA’s foreign ministry said in a statement.
RECIPE FOR DISASTER
Macron said, “The military offensive in Gaza that Israel is preparing can only lead to disaster for both peoples and risks plunging the entire region into a cycle of permanent war.”
He also again stressed the need for executing the two-state solution.
Read more: France, 14 other nations urge recognition of Palestinian state
“France will co-chair, alongside Saudi Arabia, the Conference on the two-state solution in New York this September in order to advance along this path. This is the only credible way forward—for the families of the hostages, for Israelis, and for Palestinians alike. No to war. Yes to peace and security for all.
FINDING IT ‘INCREASINGLY DIFFICULT’
Similarly, the German government said Wednesday it “rejects the escalation” of Israel’s campaign in Gaza after Israel approved a plan to conquer Gaza City and authorised calling up around 60,000 reservists.
Germany finds it “increasingly difficult to understand how these actions will lead to the freeing of all the hostages, or to a ceasefire,” government spokesman Steffen Meyer told reporters.
UNDERMINING TWO-STATE SOLUTION
Addressing Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov at a meeting in Moscow, Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi said he hoped to discuss “efforts to end the aggression on Gaza, and the massacres and starvation that it is creating.”
This was in addition to the “illegal measures that continue to undermine the two-state solution and kill all prospects for peace in the region,” he added.
“We value your clear position against the war and your demand for reaching a permanent ceasefire,” he told Lavrov.
The Israeli government’s plans to expand the war have triggered a wave of international condemnation as well as domestic protests.
Israel’s offensive has killed at least 62,064 Palestinians, most of them civilians, according to figures from the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza, which the United Nations considers reliable.
It’s a developing story. Details to follow
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