Luxembourg, October 15: EU foreign ministers could not conceal their divisions over the conflict spiralling in the Middle East between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah and Hamas on Monday.
Luxembourg Foreign Minister Xavier Bettel was blunt in his assessment that "almost nobody" listens to the European Union anymore. The EU is a "confetti" of positions on the international stage, he said.
EU foreign ministers are struggling to agree on a response that could help stop the conflict from escalating into a full-scale regional war in the Middle East. Talks are taking place in Luxembourg a week after the first anniversary of the October 7 attacks on Israel that saw Hamas-led fighters kill 1,200 people and abduct about 250 others to Gaza.
However, international criticism of Israel's retaliatory campaign in the coastal strip is growing after a year of war has left an estimated 42,000 dead in Gaza - and fighting now worsening in Lebanon.
Austrian Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg stressed that Israel has been in an "unbelieveably difficult situation" since October 7 and that Hezbollah has continuously attacked the country from Lebanon since then.
Top EU diplomat Josep Borrell voiced his frustration over opposing positions of the bloc's member countries on an increasingly tense Middle East conflict. "It takes too long to say some things which are quite evident," he said. "It's quite evident that we should be against Israeli attacks against UNIFIL, especially because our soldiers are there," he said.
Borrell referred to a joint EU statement on recent attacks on the UN peacekeeping mission in southern Lebanon, issued on the eve of the gathering.
The EU statement on the incidents involving several injured blue helmets was supposed to have been published at the end of last week.
However, the process dragged on due to a blockade by the Czech Republic, an EU member state with particularly close ties to Israel.
Source: Qatar Tribune