Top Saudi diplomat voices concern over Gaza war expansion to Lebanon, region

Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud has warned that the bloody Israeli onslaught on Gaza is affecting the entire West Asia region, including southern Lebanon, calling for sanctions on Israeli officials for violating international human rights laws.

“The situation in the Gaza Strip does not only affect the Palestinian issue but the entire region and contributes to further escalations, which is currently happening in southern Lebanon,” he said on Thursday.

He was speaking at a panel discussion titled “Wars and shadow wars: What are Europe’s options in the Middle East?” at the European Council on Foreign Relations meeting in the Spanish capital city of Madrid.

Bin Farhan’s remarks come as Hezbollah and Israel have been exchanging deadly fire since early October last year, shortly after the regime launched a genocidal aggression against the Gaza Strip following a surprise operation by the Palestinian Hamas resistance group.

Hezbollah says ready for worst-case scenario; Israel 'unlikely' to expand war soon

Hezbollah’s Deputy Secretary-General, Naim Qassem, says an expanded war with Israel is not likely in the near future, but his group is prepared for the worst-case scenario.

The Lebanese resistance movement has vowed to keep up its retaliatory attacks as long as the Tel Aviv regime continues its Gaza war, which has so far killed at least 38,011 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and injured 87,445 others.

Hezbollah officials have repeatedly said they do not want a war with Israel, however, stressing that they are prepared in case it occurs.

Elsewhere in his remarks, the Saudi foreign minister criticized the international community’s silence on the Tel Aviv regime’s continued expansion of settlements in the occupied West Bank, arguing that the trend undermines the peace process in occupied Palestinian territories.

He said the least that European countries can do is condemn Israel’s failure to abide by its commitments.

And they should take stricter steps such as imposing sanctions on those officials violating international human rights laws, bin Farhan pointed out.

The top Saudi diplomat also said the Palestinian people have the right to self-determination and deserve an independent state recognized internationally.

“The majority of the international community agrees that the permanent and just solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict is the [so-called] two-state solution, yet they stand idle in the face of matters that could undermine the two-state solution, such as Israel’s continued expansion of settlement activities.”

He praised those European countries that have recognized Palestine as a state, including Spain and Norway.

This was “a very important move” that supports the peace process and the push toward resolution of the decades-long Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the Saudi foreign minister said.

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