Borrell’s statement at a press briefing after the meeting of EU foreign ministers on Tuesday comes after the US, UK and France said they cooperated with the Israeli military to shoot down some of the incoming Iranian missiles and drones.
European Union Foreign Policy Chief Josep Borrell has said Ukraine cannot expect the same kind of support that was provided by Western countries during Iran’s attack on Israel as the two situations cannot be compared, according to a Russia Today report.
Borrell’s statement at a press briefing after the meeting of EU foreign ministers on Tuesday comes after the US, UK and France said they cooperated with the Israeli military to shoot down some of the incoming Iranian missiles and drones, the report said.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had reportedly called on Washington and its allies to do the same for Kyiv.
The two situations were “different things that cannot be compared,” Borrell said in reply to a reporter’s question, according to RT.
“Iran’s attacks flew over air bases of the armies of France, the US, the UK and Jordan. They have gone over their bases, which then acted in self-defense,” Borrell said.
“There are no air bases of the UK, or the US, much less Jordan of course, on Ukrainian territory or in the territory Russian missiles fly over. Therefore, the same answer cannot be given because the circumstances are not the same.”
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Bloc Members
On Israel’s Iron Dome defense system, the diplomat reportedly said it was something which the EU could not build overnight in Ukraine, “even if we had money in the box.”
Asked if the EU was involved in defending Israel, Borrell said the bloc was not directly involved, as it is not a state and does not have an army. Some of its members however are.
“From that point of view I can say that the Union, or the member states of the Union that have the capabilities to do it, have done it,” he said.
“We have participated, of course, in (passing along) the information that the intelligence services had about how imminent the attack was. We were warned, like so many others.”
Meaningful Actions
On Tuesday, Borrell along with the Commissioner for Crisis Management, Janez Lenarčič, stressed that “it is essential to avoid any further escalation in the Middle East, in particular following the attacks from Iran targeting Israel.”
The two reiterated in a joint statement the call for an immediate ceasefire and demanded “an urgent and unfettered expansion of the flow of humanitarian aid into Gaza.”
They said Israel’s “commitments to open new humanitarian aid access points” in Gaza, “must be followed by meaningful actions as a matter of priority.”
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“We want to make it clear that not facilitating aid delivery at the required volumes is a death sentence for Palestinians in desperate need of assistance,” the statement added.
Famine threatens 1.1 million Palestinians, with 210,000 in North Gaza alone facing imminent starvation, as indicated by the latest reports, the statement said.
Over 33,900 Killed
Currently on trial before the International Court of Justice for genocide against Palestinians, Israel has been waging a devastating war on Gaza since October 7.
According to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, 33,970 Palestinians have been killed, and 76,770 wounded in Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza starting on October 7.
Moreover, at least 7,000 people are unaccounted for, presumed dead under the rubble of their homes throughout the Strip.
Palestinian and international organizations say that the majority of those killed and wounded are women and children.
The Israeli war has resulted in an acute famine, mostly in northern Gaza, resulting in the death of many Palestinians, mostly children.
The Israeli aggression has also resulted in the forceful displacement of nearly two million people from all over the Gaza Strip, with the vast majority of the displaced forced into the densely crowded southern city of Rafah near the border with Egypt – in what has become Palestine’s largest mass exodus since the 1948 Nakba.
Israel says that 1,200 soldiers and civilians were killed during the Al-Aqsa Flood Operation on October 7. Israeli media published reports suggesting that many Israelis were killed on that day by ‘friendly fire’.
(PC, RT)
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