EU foreign policy chief warns against Lebanon getting dragged into conflict

Cairo: European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell sounded the alarm on Saturday about Lebanon being dragged into a regional conflict in a spillover from Israel’s war with Hamas.

Borrell, speaking during a visit to Lebanon, said it was imperative to avoid a regional escalation in the Middle East, and warned Israel that “nobody will win from a regional conflict”.

He was commenting at a new conference with Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati following talks with top government officials to discuss events in and around Gaza, including the impact of the war and the situation at the Israeli-Lebanese border.

“We are seeing a worrying intensification of exchange of fire across the Blue Line,” Borrell said. The current demarcation line between the two countries is known as the Blue Line, a frontier mapped by the United Nations that marks the line to which Israeli forces withdrew when they left south Lebanon in 2000.