The EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs, Josep Borrell, does not see a “great will” from Israel to close a ceasefire agreement with Lebanon, and fears that this could be delayed by the change of power in the US or the arrest warrant against the Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu.
“We are waiting for a possible ceasefire to occur, but I have to tell you that after what I have seen and heard, it does not seem to me that there is a great will to reach this ceasefire on the part of Israel,” Borrell considered this Sunday. during a meeting with Spanish media in Beirut.
The American mediator, Amos Hochstein, traveled this week to Lebanon and Israel to try to conclude a cessation of hostilities between the parties, an agreement that is now pending “validation” by the Israeli Government, according to the community official.
“Since September at the United Nations I have been hearing that a ceasefire is imminent, but it seems that it is but not yet. And the latest news that it seemed so, well at this moment I couldn’t say for sure, because in the meantime the arrest order was issued by the International Criminal Court,” he indicated.
Last Thursday, the aforementioned Court, based in The Hague, issued an arrest warrant against Netanyahu, among others, for alleged war crimes, something that Borrell believes may “provide some reason or argument” to delay the achievement of a pact to end the war in Lebanon.
In addition, he sees “many other factors” that could influence the Israeli decision to sign an agreement now or “leave it for later”, which would allow them to continue reducing the strongholds of the Shiite group Hezbollah in southern Lebanon or “wait for a situation more favorable policy” in the United States.
The new American president, Donald Trump, will return to the White House on January 20.
“I have already stopped believing, I have become completely agnostic. Or I mean, when I see it, I will believe it (…) Too many times we have been told about all the negotiations, about the ceasefire in Gaza, ‘it’s coming, it’s coming, it’s coming,'” Borrell said during his meeting with the press.
The Spanish politician met this morning in Beirut with the president of Parliament and main negotiator of the agreement on the Lebanese side, Nabih Berri, who told him that the current proposal grants the Israelis “everything they had requested.”
Among the points “to be resolved” is the participation of France in the mechanism that will be responsible for verifying the implementation of the agreement, something rejected by Netanyahu and that Berri affirms they do support in Lebanon, as explained by the community official.
