Israel Not Facing Effective Pressure, Greece Says

Greek Foreign Minister George Gerapetritis poses during an interview with Reuters, at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Athens,Greece, June 18, 2024. (Reuters)
Greek Foreign Minister George Gerapetritis poses during an interview with Reuters, at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Athens,Greece, June 18, 2024. (Reuters)
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Israel Not Facing Effective Pressure, Greece Says

Greek Foreign Minister George Gerapetritis poses during an interview with Reuters, at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Athens,Greece, June 18, 2024. (Reuters)
Greek Foreign Minister George Gerapetritis poses during an interview with Reuters, at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Athens,Greece, June 18, 2024. (Reuters)

Israel is not facing sufficient pressure to end the war in Gaza and the escalation in Lebanon is a minefield that the international community may not be able to deal with, Greece's foreign minister said on Monday.

Greece was elected as a member of the United Nations Security Council for 2025-2026 earlier this year, and Athens believes the country's historical ties with the Arab world and Israel give it credibility to act as a peace broker.

"It seems that there is no effective pressure upon Israel. We are friends of Israel, and we're strategic partners of Israel, and we're trying to be as open and sincere with them," George Gerapetritis told Reuters in an interview on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly.

Greece condemned the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas against Israel but has called for a halt to Israel's ground and air assault on Gaza that Palestinian authorities say has killed more than 41,000 people and flattened whole cities.

"The truth is that at the moment there is a continuous, very strong reaction on the part of Israel," he said after a meeting with European Union and Arab foreign ministers.

Gerapetritis said it was crucial that Arabs and Europeans pursue joint rather than disparate initiatives that could weigh on Israel but that the escalation at the Israel-Lebanon border of the last few days showed a collective international failure.

"We have not prevented the spillover, and the more dispersed the war becomes, the more the situation becomes more complicated to be solved," he said. "Lebanon could easily be a zone of tremendous hostility, and this is something that we cannot deal with. It's a clear minefield."

Since June, Greece has been seeking to convince member states in Europe to join a project to temporarily bring children hurt and traumatized by war in Gaza to the European Union.

He said those talks, along with logistical coordination with Palestinians and Israelis, were ongoing and he hoped they would bear fruit soon. He said Greece could take in some 500 children for its part.



EU’s Borrell Reiterates Call for Ceasefire in Gaza and Lebanon

 (L-R) Ukrainian Minister of Defense Rustem Umerov, French Minister of Armed Forces Sebastien Lecornu, British Secretary of State for Defense John Healey, Japan's Minister of Defense Gen Nakatani, Italy's Minister of Defense Guido Crosetto, Canada's Minister of National Defense Bill Blair, German Minister of Defense Boris Pistorius, US Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin, EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte pose for a family photo at the G7 Ministers' Meeting on defence in Naples, Italy, 19 October 2024. (EPA)
(L-R) Ukrainian Minister of Defense Rustem Umerov, French Minister of Armed Forces Sebastien Lecornu, British Secretary of State for Defense John Healey, Japan's Minister of Defense Gen Nakatani, Italy's Minister of Defense Guido Crosetto, Canada's Minister of National Defense Bill Blair, German Minister of Defense Boris Pistorius, US Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin, EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte pose for a family photo at the G7 Ministers' Meeting on defence in Naples, Italy, 19 October 2024. (EPA)
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EU’s Borrell Reiterates Call for Ceasefire in Gaza and Lebanon

 (L-R) Ukrainian Minister of Defense Rustem Umerov, French Minister of Armed Forces Sebastien Lecornu, British Secretary of State for Defense John Healey, Japan's Minister of Defense Gen Nakatani, Italy's Minister of Defense Guido Crosetto, Canada's Minister of National Defense Bill Blair, German Minister of Defense Boris Pistorius, US Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin, EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte pose for a family photo at the G7 Ministers' Meeting on defence in Naples, Italy, 19 October 2024. (EPA)
(L-R) Ukrainian Minister of Defense Rustem Umerov, French Minister of Armed Forces Sebastien Lecornu, British Secretary of State for Defense John Healey, Japan's Minister of Defense Gen Nakatani, Italy's Minister of Defense Guido Crosetto, Canada's Minister of National Defense Bill Blair, German Minister of Defense Boris Pistorius, US Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin, EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte pose for a family photo at the G7 Ministers' Meeting on defence in Naples, Italy, 19 October 2024. (EPA)

Defense ministers of the Group of Seven (G7) wealthy democracies kicked off their meeting on Saturday with host country Italy warning the global security framework is growing increasingly precarious due to competing visions of the world.

The EU's chief diplomat Josep Borrell appealed for a ceasefire in Gaza and Lebanon and the freeing of the Israeli hostages still held by Hamas, saying Israel’s killing of its leader, Yahya Sinawar, should be seized as an opportunity for the cessation of hostilities.

Borrell also urged respect for the UN peacekeepers in Lebanon, which were recently targeted by Israel.

He told reporters the morning session mainly focused on the Middle East, and said the UN mission in Lebanon, known as UNIFIL, could be reviewed but it would be up to the UN Security Council to make decisions on its future.

"Some of the members of this (G7) meeting are important members of the Security Council too," Borrell said.

Italy is a major contributor to UNIFIL which is stationed in southern Lebanon to monitor hostilities along the demarcation line with Israel. Israeli attacks have angered Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who visited Lebanon and Jordan on Friday.

The G7 gathering marks the group's first ministerial meeting dedicated to defense and comes a few days after Israeli forces killed Sinwar, whose death some Western leaders said raised the chances of an end to the conflict in Gaza.

Italy holds the G7 rotating presidency for 2024 as the West also grapples with the Russian advance in Ukraine and China's military activities around Taiwan, as well as heightened tensions along the border of North and South Korea.

"The brutal Russian aggressions in Ukraine and the indeed critical situation in Middle East, combined with the profound instability of sub-Saharan Africa and the increasing tension in the Indo-Pacific region, highlight a deteriorated security framework," Italian Defense Minister Guido Crosetto said in his opening speech.

Italian officials said Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov had joined colleagues in the southern Italian city of Naples, where a discussion on developments in his country is expected.

Warning that near term forecasts for global security "cannot be positive", Crosetto - a prominent member of Prime Minister Meloni's Brothers of Italy party - said tensions were fueled by a confrontation between "two different, perhaps incompatible visions of the world."

On the one side are the countries and organizations that believe in a world order based on international law, Crosetto said, while "on the other side, (there are) those who systematically disrespect democracy to pursue their objectives, including by a deliberate use of military force."

Before the meeting, Crosetto welcomed photographers holding a model of a tiny red animal horn, a symbol of good luck according to time-honored Neapolitan tradition.

Besides Italy, the G7 includes the United States, Canada, Britain, France, Germany and Japan, with European Union and NATO representatives also attending the gathering in the southern Italian city.