Great despair in the Middle East
Baerbock: “The situation is tearing apart”
November 13, 2023, 12:20 p.m
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While the EU calls for an “immediate” break in fighting, the Gaza war continues unabated. Foreign Minister Baerbock assesses the current situation bleakly and sees progress only in small steps. A ceasefire is currently not an option.
After her recent crisis talks in the Near and Middle East, Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock expressed herself as extremely pessimistic about the Gaza war and the prospects for the future. “The situation in the region is torn apart. The rifts seem to be getting deeper,” said the Green politician on the sidelines of a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brussels. You can feel how great the desperation is everywhere. People suffered in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank as well as in Israel.
“The bitter reality is that we are only making progress in the smallest of steps.” Regarding the ongoing calls for a ceasefire, Baerbock explained: “I totally understand the impulse in this terrible situation, where innocent children, people, women, mothers, families not only suffer so terribly, but are killed.” But impulses weren’t enough to help people.
Those who demanded such things would also have to answer questions. For example, the question of how Israel’s security can be guaranteed and what will happen to the Hamas hostages. Chancellor Olaf Scholz had also previously rejected calls for an immediate ceasefire or a longer break in fighting.
From her point of view, Baerbock named ceasefires as the only possible option at the moment in order to enable humanitarian aid for civilians in need. “There needs to be breaks where the children who sit apathetically in the rubble of their houses in Gaza because their parents are buried under the rubble can really be reached.” This policy of sometimes the smallest steps is the only way to contain this suffering in the situation and then in the next steps to ensure that Israelis and Palestinians can really live in peace and security in the future, said Baerbock.
EU wants “immediate pause in fighting”
On her most recent trip to the region, Baerbock was in the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, the West Bank and Israel on Friday and Saturday. In addition to the humanitarian situation of civilians in the Gaza Strip, the focus was also on the situation of the hostages in the hands of Hamas and the search for a peace solution.
Meanwhile, in Brussels, the EU Commissioner for Crisis Management, Janez Lenarcic, emphasizes that the urgently needed ceasefires must be “significant”. They must allow humanitarian workers to do their work in safety. “That is not the case so far,” he criticized, referring to Israel. Fuel is particularly urgent so that the hospitals in the Gaza Strip can continue to work.
EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell urged rapid aid deliveries of water, fuel and food. He had previously declared on behalf of the 27 member states that the EU joined calls for an “immediate” pause in fighting and the “establishment of humanitarian corridors” to provide care for the population of the Gaza Strip.