Blinken tells Israel escalation makes return of civilians to border region more difficult
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told Israel’s Minister for Strategic Affairs Ron Dermer that escalating its attack on Lebanon will only make it harder for Israeli and Lebanese civilians to return to their homes on both sides of the border, the State Department said after their meeting.
Blinken’s warning follows after Israeli officials publicly dismissed a US and France-led international call for a 21-day ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah that Washington later said had been “coordinated” with Israel.
Amid Israel’s ‘military momentum’, little hope for ceasefire in Lebanon: Analyst
Majid Rafizadeh, Harvard scholar and president of the International American Council on the Middle East, said he had little hope for a diplomatic solution to Israel’s bombing of Lebanon as “Israel is now in a military momentum”.
Israel “wants to eliminate or weaken all groups that it perceives as threats to it in the short term or long term. So, that includes Hezbollah,” Rafizadeh told Al Jazeera.
Despite international calls for a ceasefire, Rafizadeh said the situation in the region “is very different now” and the conflict has escalated both in terms of the intensity of attacks and those involved in the fighting.
“There are several players. Not only groups but governments involved, and I think this is a very dangerous situation because any escalation of conflict in Lebanon can really turn the region into a conflagration,” he said.
“It can easily spill into other countries … Unfortunately, I don’t see any diplomatic solution to the conflict,” he added.
Fears Israel’s bombing of Lebanon could draw in Iran as conflict grows: Analyst
“Another danger of this conflict is that it can, yes, drag Iran into the conflict because Iran is Hezbollah’s strongest ally in the region,” Rafizadeh said.
“Iran will feel that it is obliged to defend its political ally, and I think what you will see is tit-for-tat retaliation. For example, Israel is now bombarding Lebanon. Hezbollah is going to retaliate, and Israel will use more force to respond and this could lead to a vicious cycle that could drag Iran into the war,” he said.
But Iran has been “very careful” to not be dragged into the war so far, Rafizadeh said. Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian has said that Israel is “laying traps for Iran to be drawn into the war, which later will draw the US also into the war”, he said.
“So I think this is really a dangerous development and if it is not contained, it can turn into a wide conflict in the region and affect every other country.”
UK, Lebanese PMs meet on sidelines of UNGA summit
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer met his Lebanese counterpart at the United Nations and discussed the importance of an immediate ceasefire and a negotiated solution in the conflict with Israel, his office says.
Starmer met Lebanon’s Najib Mikati at the United Nations General Assembly.
“The Prime Minister opened by giving his sincere condolences to Prime Minister Mikati for the loss of civilian life in recent weeks,” the statement said. “They discussed the escalating conflict in Lebanon, and agreed on the importance of an immediate ceasefire and a negotiated solution.”
The UK joins the US and France in a group of Israel’s close allies calling publicly for a ceasefire, despite Israel’s continuation of its intense bombing campaign against Lebanon this week.
None of the above-mentioned countries has offered consequences for Israel if it continues to kill civilians.
