'Israel won't stop' unless world acts, says Jordan FM Ayman Safadi

Jordan Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi has warned that Israel will continue to kill more people and further endanger regional stability unless the world acts.

Safafi, a strong critic of Israel's war on Gaza and now Lebanon, told Al-Araby Al-Jadeed's correspondent on the sidelines of the 79th United Nations General Assembly, held in New York this week, that Amman is highly concerned about recent developments in Lebanon and Gaza and urged the international community to halt the onslaughts. 

New intense Israeli strikes on Lebanon this week have killed over 700 people, while the near-year-long war on Gaza has killed tens of thousands of civilians, including children.

"If Israel does not face the consequences of what it is doing, it won't stop," Safadi told The New Arab's sister Arabic-language newspaper.

"Israel must face consequences for its war crimes, for killing and defying international law, and for violating the rights of the Palestinian people."

The press conference followed a high-level ministerial meeting Thursday on the sidelines of the UNGA reaffirming support for the UN Palestinian Refugee Agency (UNRWA) that was co-hosted by Jordan and Sweden and attended by 50 countries.

UNRWA has faced intense attacks since 7 October by Israel, which is seeking to designate it as a "terrorist" organisation and killed 224 of its staff since the start of the war on Gaza. 

"It has been a year since Israel launched its aggression on Gaza… killing more than 41,000 Palestinians, destroying Gaza, turning it into ruins [and] now we see this aggression expanding into Lebanon," said Safadi.

"We warned if the war on Gaza didn't stop, it would spread to the entire region, and we see that in Lebanon. We see that in the West Bank, which is on fire."

Safadi pointed to the escalating Israeli aggression preceding 7 October when the number of Palestinians killed by Israel in the occupied West Bank was the "highest in a decade".

"Israel hasn't listened to its friends, it hasn't listened to Security Council resolutions, nor General Assembly resolutions, nor even to the International Court of Justice resolutions," he stressed, adding that the world needed to understand that if Israel didn't face the consequences of its actions "it won't stop".

If Israel doesn't take heed, he warned, "it will continue to defy the world, slaughter Palestinians, and push the region into the abyss".

Global inaction had seen a growing loss of confidence in international law, he added, and a belief that it is applied selectively.

"[We have] two choices – do we let this government impose an agenda of war and destruction on the region, or does the international community act to stop the region from sliding into a catastrophic war?" he said.

Safadi also warned against disregarding the ICJ advisory opinion which branded the occupation of the West Bank as illegal.

"Will [the world] respect the decisions of the institutions it established to implement international law and maintain international peace and security, or will it allow Israel to destroy the credibility of these institutions?" he asked.

Safadi stressed that the war on Gaza "must stop immediately, and the starvation of the Palestinians through the siege must stop".

At the press conference Philippe Lazzarini, the commissioner-general of UNRWA labelled Israeli efforts to classify the relief agency as a terrorist organisation "surreal", particularly as Israel was a UN member state.

If this happens, he said, it wouldn't only be an assault on UNRWA, but "an attack on one of the tools of our multilateral international system".

He warned this would have repercussions for the UN body's operations across the world as it would establish a "new norm" whereby other countries would be emboldened to take similar actions to expel UN or international organisations if they do not agree with their work or stances.

Meanwhile, Qatar pledged an additional $100 million to UNRWA as part of its response to the humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip.

Qatari Minister for International Cooperation at the Foreign Ministry Lolwah Al-Khater pointed to the vital role UNRWA plays and called Israel's attempts to classify the humanitarian organisation as a. terrorist entity as "extremely dangerous".

This article is an abridged translation of an article which appeared in our Arabic edition on 27 September 2024 with additional reporting. To read the original article click here.