EU’s Borrell calls for Hezbollah-Israel de-escalation

On Thursday, EU’s top diplomat Josep Borrell urged de-escalation at the Lebanon-Israel border during his visit to Beirut amid concerns of a full-scale war between Israel and Hezbollah.

"Since I last visited Lebanon in January, the drums of war have not stopped pounding," Borrell said, noting that as of yet, a full-blown conflict in south Lebanon "has not happened".

"That's good news," he said during a news conference with Lebanese Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib.

"We need to de-escalate military tensions," he added, urging "all sides to pursue this path".

Borrell's visit coincided with cross-border fire on Wednesday night and Thursday morning between Iran-aligned Hezbollah and Israel.

Hezbollah said it launched several attack drones at an Israeli military base Nahal Gershom, "targeting the positions of its officers and soldiers".

It also said it hit the Israeli town of Rosh Hanikra opposite Naqoura for the first time on Thursday and claimed to have fired Katyusha rockets deeper inside Israel, well beyond the border region.

Several villages in south Lebanon came under Israeli air strikes on Thursday, including a drone strike on an Iran-funded park in Maroun al-Ras while artillery shells hit several other sites along the border.

As war raged in the Gaza Strip since October, Hezbollah has traded near-daily fire with Israeli forces in support of the Palestinians.

Repeated escalations have punctuated the cross-border clashes, along with flurries of diplomatic activity to avert a wider conflict, most recently last month after an Israeli strike in July killed a top Hezbollah commander.

The US announced on Wednesday a round of sanctions against a Lebanese network it accused of smuggling oil and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) to help fund Hezbollah.

The sanctions target three people, five companies, and two vessels that the US Treasury Department said were overseen by a senior leader of Hezbollah's finance team and used profits from illicit LPG shipments to Syria to aid generate revenue for the group.

Borrell said the EU was putting all its diplomatic efforts towards avoiding a broader escalation, particularly in south Lebanon, but added: "I don't have a magic wand".

"We have to continue pushing for a comprehensive peace in the region," he said at the end of a two-day trip to Lebanon after also visiting Egypt.

The EU diplomat also visited Lebanese army chief Joseph Aoun for talks on the border fire and the wider region.

News.Az