EU leaders mull strengthening Lebanon ties in response to Middle East crisis
EU leaders have supported deeper engagement with Lebanon to assist safeguard it from the repercussions of the disaster gripping the Center East, Charles Michel has mentioned.
“We had an in-depth dialogue on Lebanon,” the European Council President informed reporters following a summit of EU leaders in Brussels late on Wednesday.
“They’ve loads of Syrian refugees in Lebanon and all of us perceive it is our duty to interact with this nation (…) together with the Lebanese armed forces,” Michel defined, including that future cooperation with Lebanon might embody steps to handle migration flows into Europe.
Within the summit’s conclusions, the 27 leaders say they stand able to “work with all companions to keep away from additional escalation of tensions within the area, notably in Lebanon.”
It comes after tensions between Iran and Israel reached a harmful excessive over the weekend when Tehran launched an unprecedented barrage of drones and missiles in the direction of Israeli territory.
A deepening financial disaster and fragile authorities makes Lebanon notably weak to the instability gripping the area. The presence of the Iranian-backed militant group Hezbollah – which has constantly exchanged fireplace throughout the border with Israel because the outbreak of the struggle with Hamas, and which took half in Tehran’s aerial assault final weekend – additionally dangers dragging the nation into the deepening battle.
The nation can also be residence to some 210,000 Palestinian and 1.5 million Syrian refugees, which means additional instability might unleash a wave of migrants in the direction of Europe.
Final week, Cyprus introduced it will halt the processing of asylum purposes as a consequence of a surge in arrivals of Syrian refugees transiting by means of Lebanon and trying to succeed in the island, which lies simply 260 km off the Lebanese coast within the Mediterranean sea.
Talking forward of the convention, Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides introduced he and Fee President von der Leyen would journey to Lebanon in early Might to handle a variety of points, together with migration.
Christodoulides additionally mentioned he would encourage different EU leaders to think about reassessing the so-called “protected areas” inside Syria with a purpose to facilitate the return of migrants and refugees.
Michel, nonetheless, avoided confirming whether or not different leaders had backed the proposal. “We have to interact with Lebanon, that’s very clear. Migration is just one facet,” Michel mentioned.
“We attempt to interact with third international locations to develop partnerships on migration, however not solely on migration,” he added.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni was among the many leaders that referred to as for an “evaluation” of the scenario in Lebanon, Michel mentioned.
Since sweeping to energy in late 2022, Meloni has been a key driver in EU efforts to strengthen the EU’s so-called “exterior dimension” of migration by putting offers with third international locations that embody focused measures to crack down on human traffickers and curb the departures of irregular migrants in the direction of European shores.
The bloc’s take care of Tunisia, which injects EU money into the North African nation in return for tighter migrant controls, has nonetheless been slammed by human rights defenders for ignoring the documented abuses and authoritarian tendencies of the Tunisian authorities.