Paphos (Brussels Morning Newspaper) – Leaders of the nine Mediterranean European Union (EU) countries, known as MED9 called at a summit in Cyprus for a halt to fighting in Gaza and Lebanon.
French President Emmanuel Macron and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni denounced as “unacceptable” Israeli firing on UN peacekeepers in southern Lebanon, a perspective echoed by Spain’s prime minister. The three nations together have around 2,000 troops in the UNIFIL mission, which stated Israeli tank fire led to the harm of two of its peacekeepers. It expressed two more were injured after “explosions” near an observation tower.
Known as MED9, the group also brought together leaders from Portugal, Greece, Cyprus, Malta, Slovenia and Croatia, along with the king of Jordan, Abdullah II, for the one-day conference in the city of Paphos.
How are MED9 leaders responding to the Gaza conflict?
Emmanuel Macron called it “absolutely unacceptable” that UN troops are “deliberately targeted by the Israeli armed forces”. He said that France “will not tolerate” a repeat. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez urged an “end to all violence” against the peacekeepers in Lebanon, and his Italian counterpart Meloni stated: “It is not acceptable.”
In a joint account later, the three leaders expressed “outrage” at the peacekeeper wounds and said the “attacks” disregard Security Council Resolution 1701, under which only the UN and Lebanon’s army are to be attending in southernmost Lebanon. “Those attacks are inexcusable and shall immediately come to an end,” the statement demanded, calling for “an immediate ceasefire.”
Israeli forces since late September have expanded operations against Iran-backed Hezbollah fighters in Lebanon, as the fight against Hezbollah’s ally, Palestinian militants Hamas, persists in the Gaza Strip. “Only a few miles away from Cyprus, we fight. We have a difficult situation,” Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides stated as he opened the summit. Christodoulides expressed that MED9 called for an end to hostilities in Gaza and Lebanon and a resumption of discussions.
Why does Macron want to stop arms exports to Gaza and Lebanon?
The French president outraged Israel’s government last weekend by indicating that countries should “stop delivering weapons to fight in Gaza” while determining that France was not supplying any itself. At the summit, he stated that “stopping the export of weapons” used in Gaza and Lebanon was the only method to finish fighting there. “This is not in any way a call to demilitarise Israel against the threats against this country and its people, our friends,” Macron said. The leaders also debated getting more aid into Gaza, for which Jordan presented a fresh plan.
