The UN’s special coordinator for Lebanon, Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, said in a statement on X: “With the region on the brink of an imminent catastrophe, it cannot be overstated enough: there is NO military solution that will make either side safer.”
World powers moved at the weekend to call for a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah. The White House national security spokesperson, John Kirby, said escalating the conflict was not in Israel’s best interest.
Washington was saying this “directly to our Israeli counterparts” and believed “there can be time and space for a diplomatic solution here and that’s what we’re working on”, he told ABC.
The EU called for an “urgent ceasefire” and “renewed intense diplomatic mediation efforts”, a message echoed by the UK foreign secretary, David Lammy, who noted the “worrying escalation”.
Addressing the Labour party’s annual conference, Lammy said a ceasefire would facilitate “a political settlement, so that Israelis and Lebanese civilians can return to their homes and live in peace and security”.
Guterres, however, said the language used by both sides indicated a lack of desire to explore peace. “It is for me clear that both sides are not interested in a ceasefire. And that is a tragedy, because this is a war that must stop,” he told CNN.
