Middle East could be 'engulfed in flames', says EU's top diplomat
The Middle East could see a violent spillover of conflict unless a peaceful solution to the war in Gaza is found, the EU's top diplomat Josep Borrell warned on Wednesday.
Speaking at a diplomatic seminar in Lisbon organised by Portugal's foreign ministry, Borrell said that "the seeds of hate are being sown", Euronews reported.
"If this tragedy doesn’t end soon, I fear that all of the Middle East will see itself engulfed in flames," he added.
His stark warning comes a day after Saleh al-Arouri, a senior Hamas official and the organisation's second-in-command, was killed in an Israeli airstrike in the Lebanese capital Beirut.
Israel has not claimed responsibility for the assassination, but an adviser to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday that whoever was responsible had executed a "surgical strike against the Hamas leadership."
The assassination of al-Arouri, one of the founders of Hamas’ military wing, on Lebanese soil presents a significant threat of regional escalation that could pull in the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, who are Tehran-backed allies of Hamas.