EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell met a political official of Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah in Beirut on Saturday, as part of a push to avoid Lebanon being dragged into the Israel-Hamas war.
Borrell held talks with the head of Hezbollah’s bloc in the Lebanese parliament, Mohammad Raad, Lebanese media reported. An EU source confirmed the meeting, which came hours after the group’s militants fired a barrage of rockets at an Israeli military base in response to the killing of a senior Hamas figure in a suspected Israeli strike in Beirut on Tuesday last week.
The EU is “engaging in diplomatic dialogue with all relevant political representatives who have influence on the situation on the ground or have a stake in it,” the source said.
Photo: AP
Speaking at a joint news conference with the Lebanese Minister of Foreign Affairs Abdallah Bou Habib, Borrell said: “It is absolutely necessary to avoid Lebanon being dragged into a regional conflict.”
He added: “I am sending this message to Israel too: Nobody will win from a regional conflict.”
Shiite Muslim militant group Hezbollah and Israel have exchanged near-daily cross-border fire since Hamas’s unprecedented Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel, which triggered the war.
However, a strike in Hezbollah’s south Beirut stronghold that killed Hamas deputy leader Salah al-Aruri on Tuesday intensified fears of a wider conflagration.
A US defense official, who requested not to be identified by name, said that Israel carried out the strike that killed Aruri.
Israel has not claimed responsibility.
Hezbollah said it had targeted the Israeli military’s Meron air control base with 62 missiles in its “initial response” to the killing of Aruri.
It said six of its fighters had been killed, without elaborating on the circumstances.
The Israeli army reported “approximately 40 launches from Lebanon” and said it struck Hezbollah “military sites” in response.
In other news, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke with top Turkish officials as he started a diplomatic tour aimed at avoiding a broader regional war in the Middle East and rallying Arab support for Gaza’s post-conflict governance.
The top US diplomat met with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan for more than an hour on Saturday afternoon after speaking with Turkish Minister of Foreign Affairs Hakan Fidan earlier in the day.
Blinken next made a brief stop in Greece, where he met with Greek Prime Minister Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis.
From there Blinken is to crisscross the Middle East over several days, with stops planned in Jordan, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Egypt, Israel and the West Bank.
As Israel’s war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip is about to enter its fourth month, the US hopes that Turkey can use its influence in the Middle East, including with Iran, to help reduce the chances of a broader conflict.
Washington wants to enlist Ankara’s support for plans on how to govern Gaza after the war between Israel and Hamas ends, a senior US official told reporters traveling with Blinken.
Blinken and Fidan discussed Sweden’s NATO accession process and the humanitarian situation in Gaza, the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on X, formerly Twitter.
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