Countdown: Politicians’ Contacts Multiply to Prevent Major War in Middle East
Scholz listens to Netanyahu, ceasefire is a “decisive step.” In Italy, calls for Meloni to cut off military-economic cooperation with Israel
Hypotheses of a large-scale war between Israel, Lebanon, and Iran are becoming increasingly plausible as the flames of the Olympic Games go out in Paris on Sunday, August 11.
Israel continued intense attacks over the weekend in both Gaza and Lebanon, where an Israeli air raid killed another leader of the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas in Saidam, near Sidon, in the south of the country.
Following the bombing of the Al Taba’ee school in the center of Gaza City, one of the deadliest since the beginning of the conflict in Gaza, the Israeli army has carried out dozens of attacks in different areas of Gaza. Several targets were hit: Israeli gunboats attacked the port area and neighborhoods of Shati west of Gaza City, while artillery from Israeli forces shelled the eastern neighborhoods of Bureij and the northern neighborhoods of Nuseirat in central Gaza.
The escalation of the conflict is more than evident, and world leaders have stepped up contacts as time runs out: during a phone call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said a ceasefire would be a “decisive step” for de-escalation in the Middle East. Scholz emphasized that he believes the military objectives in the fight against Hamas “have been achieved” and that “the human suffering and civilian casualties in Gaza are enormous.”
For his part, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi held a telephone conversation with his interim Iranian counterpart Ali Bagheri Kani, with whom he discussed the situation in the Middle East. Condemning the assassination of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran, Wang emphasized that the incident “jeopardized the ceasefire negotiation process in Gaza and disrupted regional peace and stability.” Between the lines of a very general statement issued by Beijing’s foreign ministry, one can read that the Chinese diplomatic chief was trying to hear from his Iranian interlocutor that war against Israel could be avoided.
In this context, Wang Yi reaffirmed China’s support for Iran’s new government “in safeguarding regional peace and stability” and emphasized Beijing’s willingness to “maintain close ties with Iran.”
Instead, Italy went no further than some internal monologues of political forces. Angelo Bonelli of Green Europe and Alliance of the Green and Left MP Angelo Bonelli called on Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni to “recall the Italian ambassador from Israel and interrupt the signing of economic and military cooperation agreements.”
“Palestinian civilians continue to die, nearly 40,000, the vast majority of them women and children. Netanyahu is a criminal and should be tried for war crimes,” Bonelli emphasized.
