Jordan’s top diplomat on Monday slammed Israel’s war with the Hezbollah group in Lebanon, saying it is pushing the Middle East into the “abyss of full-scale regional war.”
“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 UN 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 UN peacekeepers.
He added that Jordan, like Lebanon, backed an initiative by the United States and France for a three-week ceasefire 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.”
