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SvennoJ 4 days ago
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EU foreign policy head defends UN chief against Israeli claims

Josep Borrell has responded to a statement made by Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz, who said the United Nations has become an “anti-Semitic and anti-Israeli body” under Antonio Guterres’s leadership.

“We firmly reject the unjustified attacks against [UN Secretary-General] Antonio Guterres. The repeated accusations of anti-Semitism against him are slanderous,” Borrell said.

He also addressed Netanyahu’s demand that Guterres immediately remove UN peacekeepers from southern Lebanon.

“It is worth recalling to everybody that it is the UN Security Council that decides on UN peacekeeping missions, not the [UN secretary general],” Borrell said.


Ireland’s foreign minister says Israel undermining UN

Micheal Martin has accused Israel of undermining the UN and its peacekeeping force in Lebanon in the wake of increasing attacks against the Blue Helmets there.

Speaking to reporters before an EU Foreign Affairs Council meeting, the Irish foreign minister criticised a statement by Netanyahu on Sunday that accused UNIFIL of “providing a human shield” to Hezbollah and called for it to leave “the danger zone”.

“On the Middle East and on the remarks of Prime Minister Netanyahu in respect of the UN, Israel is essentially now undermining the United Nations and the United Nations peacekeeping force with the very rules-based international order,” Martin said.

The minister added Israel “needs to step back” and urged the European Council to take a clear stand.

“Today at the meeting I will be saying to my colleagues there can be no equivocation, there can be no hesitation or relaxation of any views in respect of the primacy of the United Nations in terms of the international rules-based order. And it is very, very concerning in terms of both the statement from the prime minister of Israel but also the behaviour and activity on the Blue Line and in respect of UN posts and across Lebanon.”


Spain urges EU members to suspend free trade deal with Israel

Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has called on other countries in the bloc to respond to Spain and Ireland’s request to suspend a free trade deal over Israel’s relentless attacks on Gaza and Lebanon.

For months, both Spain and Ireland have been in talks with other EU countries who want a review of the EU-Israel Association Agreement on the basis that Israel may be breaching its human rights clause.

The EU-Israel Association Agreement was ratified by the parliaments of EU member states, the European Parliament and the Knesset and entered into force in 2000 after decades of evidence of Israeli violations of Palestinian rights.

Israel’s war on Gaza has killed more than 42,200 Palestinians and wounded nearly 99,000 – mostly children, women and the elderly.


Spanish PM says ‘no withdrawal’ of UN mission from Lebanon

Sanchez says there will be “no withdrawal” of the UN peacekeeping force from southern Lebanon after repeated Israeli attacks. The prime minister condemned Israel’s call for the mission to leave after urging EU member states to pull the plug on a free trade agreement with Israel.