Ahead of the meeting, our RTL colleague Jeannot Ries asked former foreign minister Jean Asselborn about his perspectives on the rising tensions between Iran and Israel, as well as a potential solution for Palestinians.
According to Asselborn, Iran is very much isolated in the region, which is why he exhibits a degree of careful optimism that a direct war between Iran and Israel should no break out. Nonetheless, one should not underestimate the security risk the Islamic Republic poses, he underlines.
“We have to know, that Iran harbours its goal of destroying Israel since the Khomenei. Iran is also the largest weapon exporter, especially regarding the drones Putin uses on Ukraine. And its close position to the nuclear bomb only makes this situation more precarious.”
Asselborn especially laments Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal during his presidency, which had previously prevented Iran from building its own nuclear arsenal.
With regard to the current conditions in Palestine, Asselborn believes that the European community could have done much more.
“You have to know that Iran really helped Netanyahu by undermining the media output on Gaza - and of the release of the Hamas hostages - during the past week. Nonetheless, Israelis are now also pressuring Netanyahu to change trajectories by taking it to the streets. I believe that many in Israel are now of the opinion that enough is enough.”
Not just the military interventions in Gaza, but also the brutal assaults on settlers in West Jordan are to be halted. A political solution is urgently needed, Asselborn stresses.
“We as Europeans and Americans could not have cared less about how Israelis treat Palestinians, and how Palestinians treat Israelis. Already back when I first took office in 2004, the two-state-solution was one of our goals. We came close to realising this at Annapolis 2007 and 2008, but ultimately it failed. John Kerry gave it another go in 2014, but again, to no avail. In his twenty-year-mandate, Netanyahu has done nothing but prevent the two-state-solution.”
To Asselborn, the right to Israeli existence is by no means to be questioned. But without a Palestinian state, Israel will never find peace. When pointing to the map, the former foreign minister concludes that Israel went from having 300,000 settlers in 2004 to 700,000 today.
“This is Palestinian land. It is internationally recognised, that this is Palestinians’ territory, not that of Israeli settlers. And you don’t just see this in the West Bank, but also in East Jerusalem.”
Jean Asselborn sees the clear mistake within the international community: had a two-state-solution been brought about earlier, there would be no Hamas today.
