As world leaders gathered in New York for the annual United Nations General Assembly, UN Security Council member France called for an emergency meeting on the crisis engulfing the Middle East. This comes a day after Israeli air strikes on Lebanon killed more than 490 people, according to local authorities.
“I have requested that an emergency meeting of the Security Council be held on Lebanon this week,” newly appointed French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot told the United Nations General Assembly on Monday, calling on all sides to “avoid a regional conflagration that would be devastating for everyone,” especially civilians.
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’s spokesman said he was “gravely alarmed” and cautioned against “the possibility of transforming Lebanon (into) another Gaza.”
“International challenges are moving faster than our ability to solve them,” he said ahead of the gathering in New York.
EU foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell said that the escalating clashes between Israel and Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah threaten to plunge the Middle East into all-out war.
“We’re seeing more military strikes, more damage, more collateral damage, more victims. I can say we are almost in a full-fledged war,” Borrell said, adding “everybody has to put all their capacity to stop this”.
His comments came after Lebanese authorities said Israeli airstrikes killed at least 492 people on Monday, including 35 children.
Procrastination
On Gaza, Borrell said “despite all the diplomatic capacity that we have deployed, nothing has been able to stop the war,” accusing both sides of “procrastinating.”
The US is Israel’s main ally and weapons supplier.
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