The spokesperson for the European External Action Service called for calm on Tuesday 27 August after “a drone incident south of Beirut led to new tensions in a region already affected by too much instability”. Lebanon has accused Israel of being behind the attack in the south of the capital, one of Hezbollah's main strongholds.
Not once mentioning Israel, in her statement the spokesperson warned that “it is the responsibility of all parties in the region to exercise maximum restraint, to comply with international law and to avoid any further escalation of a potentially dangerous and delicate situation, including by avoiding inflammatory rhetoric”.
Immediately after the attack, Lebanese President Michel Aoun denounced what looked like “a declaration of war that will allow us to exercise our right to defend our sovereignty”. In the opinion of Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah, this attack was Israel's “first act of aggression” in Lebanon since the 2006 war. He announced that his fighters “will not allow” attacks of this nature to be repeated “no matter the cost” and that they will “do everything in their power to prevent them” from occurring in the future.
The spokesperson for the EEAS stressed that the EU expects the parties to comply fully with the relevant UN Security Council resolutions, particularly resolution 1701, which deals with resolution of the 2006 conflict between Israel and Lebanon, and resolution 1559 concerning Lebanon's sovereignty over its territory.
She said that “there can be no unilateral or military solution to the interrelated problems of the Middle East”. She went on to stress that the EU supports Lebanon's stability, security and sovereignty and is in close coordination with its international partners to this end. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)