Israel only wants wars, no end game: Jordanian Minister on Middle East tensions

Jordan Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi said it took 30 years to convince people that peace is possible but the Israeli government led by Benjamin Netanyahu "killed" it.

India Today World Desk
New Delhi,

UPDATED: Sep 30, 2024 
Written By: Nakul Ahuja

In Short

Jordan foreign minister says 57 Muslim-Arab nations want peace

Says Israel continuing violence as it doesn't want two-state solution

Over 100 killed in Lebanon in Israeli airstrikes on Sunday

Jordan's Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi said that Israel has no "end game" and only wants wars in response to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's "we are surrounded by enemies" remark. Safadi's comments come amid dramatically escalating tensions between Israel and Hezbollah.

Safadi's comments came after Israel bombarded Lebanon's Beirut, with the Jewish nation's military saying it had targeted Hezbollah's central headquarters in the southern suburbs of the capital.

"We are here, members of the Muslim-Arab committee, mandated by 57 Muslim-Arab countries. I can tell you here very unequivocally, all of us are willing to, right now, guarantee the security of Israel in the context of Israel ending the occupation and allowing for the emergence of a Palestinian state, an independent state," Safadi said.

Holding Netanyahu responsible for the country's brutal aggression against Lebanon and its continued attack, Safadi said the Israeli PM is continuing to rely on violence as he doesn't want a "two-state solution".

"Can you ask Israeli officials what is their end game other than wars and wars and wars...do they have a narrative other than 'I'm going to continue to go to war and kill this and kill that.' It took 30 years to convince people that peace is possible, but this Israeli government killed it. The amount of dehumanisation, hatred will take generations to navigate," he added.

Safadi also said that he holds Israel responsible for the "catastrophic consequences of its brutal aggression against Lebanon" amid escalating tensions between the Jewish nation and Hezbollah.

Israel continues to launch airstrikes on what it says are Hezbollah targets in Lebanon. Israeli airstrikes on Sunday killed over 100 people and injured 359 others. The airstrikes have destroyed homes and have displaced thousands of people. A video shared by India Today reporter Ashraf Wani from Lebanon showed hundreds of Lebanese people trying to cross the border to Syria in search of safer pastures as Israeli airstrikes continued to wreak havoc.

"We hold Israel fully responsible for the catastrophic consequences of its aggression on Lebanon, which it is launching brutally without any legal or humanitarian deterrent, while it continues its aggression on Gaza and its dangerous escalation in the West Bank. We stand in solidarity with Lebanon and its brotherly people as they confront this aggression and heal their wounds, and we affirm our support for it and for its sovereignty, security, stability, cohesion, and peace," Safadi said on X.



Ayman Safadi's statement came amid the news of the death of several top Hezbollah leaders, including Hassan Nasrallah. Israel has claimed to have eliminated several top commanders of Hezbollah even as it continues its bombardment to target the militant group's military infrastructure.

Notably, at least four people were killed after an Israeli airstrike hit a building in Lebanon's Beirut in the early hours of Monday. This is the first time since the escalation of the conflict that Israel has attacked a residential area in Beirut's Kola district. India Today TV's Ashraf Wani reported that Israeli drones have been carrying out attacks in the suburbs of Beirut since Sunday evening.

Watch live: Beirut city centre in ruins after first Israeli strike in 18 years

Holly Patrick

THE INDEPENDENT UK
 Monday, 30 September


Watch live from Beirut on Monday, 30 September, as an apartment building lies in ruins following an Israeli strike in the city centre for the first time since 2006.

This feed shows a residential building that was hit by an airstrike in the Kola district.

According to Lebanon’s health ministry, the attack brings the death toll from Israeli airstrikes in Lebanon to more than 1,000 people and the number of those injured to more than 6,000 over the last two weeks.

Lebanon’s head of emergency disaster management said the number of displaced people in the country surged from 300,000 to nearly one million in just a few hours over the weekend.

The attack stoked fears that Middle East fighting could spin out of control and draw in the United States.

Hamas said an Israeli strike killed its leader in Lebanon on Monday, while another Palestinian militant group said three of its leaders were killed in a strike on Beirut.