Jordanian FM in Beirut says Israeli escalation risks 'regional war'
Jordan's Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi warned Monday that "Israeli aggression" was pushing the region towards the "abyss" of full-blown war, during a visit to Lebanon.
"The Israeli aggression... which started in Gaza and now has continued into Lebanon is pushing the whole region into the abyss of full-blown regional war," Safadi told a news conference in Beirut.
“We are facing a disaster and a dangerous escalation that threatens the region,” Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi. “Israel bears responsibility of this aggression, the escalation in the region, and any new escalation that the region faces.”
He spoke in a news conference following a meeting with Lebanese caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati in Beirut.
Safadi said that Jordan backs the Lebanese government’s initiative to elect a new president and commitment to implement the U.N. Security Council resolution that ended Israel’s last war with Hezbollah in 2006, and that would keep southern Lebanon exclusively under the control of the Lebanese military and U.N. peacekeepers.
He added that Jordan, like Lebanon, backed an initiative by the United States and France for a three-week cease-fire in Lebanon.
Meanwhile, as the region braces for an Israeli retaliation for Iran's missile attack, Safadi said Jordan rejects either country using its airspace in their tit-for-tat hostilities.
“We will not be a battlefield for anyone,” he said. “We made this message clear to Iran and to Israel as well.”
Source: Agence France Presse
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