Strasbourg, , Oct 8 (EFE).- The European Union’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Spanish politician Josep Borrell, spoke to EFE on Tuesday on a range of issues, including the crisis in Venezuela, the escalating conflict in the Middle East and the EU’s for Ukraine.
VENEZUELA
On Venezuela, where president Nicolas Maduro won reelection in July in polls that the country’s opposition and the EU have denounced as fraudulent, Borrell said the crisis can only be resolved with a “political” solution through “international pressure.”
“We do not recognize that (Maduro) has democratic legitimacy. The European Parliament has said so. And the next European Council (…) will say so,” Borrell said.
EU heads of state and government are expected to discuss the Venezuelan crisis at their next summit in Brussels on Oct. 17 and Oct. 18.
While the EU foreign policy chief made it clear that the bloc does not “recognize Maduro’s democratic legitimacy,” Borrell said he was “not in favor” of imposing sanctions against Venezuela, which he believes would unduly harm the people of the South American nation.
“I am not in favor of imposing sanctions that (…) the Venezuelan people”, he said, pointing to those imposed on Cuba “that have not served to change the political regime,” but “have caused enormous suffering in the Cuban population.”
MIDDLE EAST
Borrell was speaking to EFE after a debate Tuesday in the European Parliament on the worsening situation in the Middle East.
Since Palestinian militant group Hamas, which governs the Gaza Strip, attacked southern Israel a year ago, killing around 1,200 people and taking 250 hostage, Israel has responded with a military offensive that has killed some 42,000 people in the besieged Palestinian enclave.
Gazan officials say the death toll is likely far higher, with an estimated 10,000 people uned for, presumed to be buried under the rubble of Gaza’s destroyed buildings.
In recent weeks, Israel has also been engaged in ground clashes and bombing raids against Hezbollah, the Iran-backed Lebanese Shiite group, which had been firing missiles into northern Israel since the day after the Hamas attack on Oct. 7. More than 2,000 people have died and over a million have been displaced, according to Lebanese authorities.
Borrell, who in February called for imposing an arms embargo on Israel, denied he was in favor of “leaving Israel defenseless.”
“Israel today has the most powerful army in the Middle East thanks to Western ,” he said.
All those who “complain that there are too many deaths, that (Israel) is killing too many people in Gaza – if they really believe that they are killing too many people, perhaps the logical response would be to supply fewer weapons,” Borrell said.
He said that weapons sales from the US to Israel would be a “very important” issue in the US election campaign, pointing out that US president Joe Biden was losing from young Democratic Party voters “precisely because of (the) Palestinian issue”.
“Candidate (Kamala) Harris has shown more empathy for the Palestinians, which is not to say that she shows less empathy for the victims on Israel’s side and less for Israel,” Borrell said.
The EU High Representative said American of Israel and its right to self-defense is something that both major parties in the US agree on. “Everybody says so. The problem is how this right to defense is exercised,” he said.
UKRAINE
On the EU’s for Ukraine in its defense against Russian invading forces, Borrell said the bloc’s leaders were “racking their brains” on how to deliver 6 billion euros in military aid to Ukraine, as Hungary has refused to the measure.
The EU’s chief diplomat pointed out that all 27 member states must unanimously agree on how to manage the European Peace Fund (EPFSF), the mechanism through which EU nations co-finance weapons sent to Ukraine.
“We are racking our brains to try to find a solution to avoid the rather absurd blockage, because we have 6 billion euros that the Member States have provided (…) and we cannot use the funds to Ukraine’s military efforts because one country is opposed to it,” Borrell said.
He insisted that EU leaders were still looking for a “procedure that (….) would make it possible to resolve this situation.” EFE
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