Leaders of France, Germany and Britain endorse calls for ceasefire in Gaza

The French President, Chancellor Merkel, and Prime Minister Johnson, in a ‘trilateral declaration,’ have supported the fresh attempt by the mediators United States, Qatar, and Egypt to reset negotiations in efforts to try and put an end to the ten months running conflict between Israel and Hamas. They also demanded the release of Hamas held scores of hostages and ’unrestricted’ supply of aid.

Both parties have refrained from directly dealing with each other with mediators for several months now, trying to get them to accept a three-phase plan whereby Hamas frees the remaining hostages captured in the Oct. 7 attack in exchange for Palestinians in Israeli jails and Israel pulling out of Gaza. 

Negotiations were due to reconvene on Thursday. French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, and the British Labour Party Keir Starmer leader co-authored it. He urged Iran and its followers to desist from any act that would fuel more tension in the Middle East following the assassination of Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran and Hezbollah’s leading general Fouad Shukr in Beirut.

During the half-hour telephonic talk with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian Sunday, Starmer urged the Iranian government not to attack Israel. The Prime Minister stated that he was worried by the processes going on in the specific area, and urged all the sides not to aggravate the situation and not to improve the situation in the region,” as in the statement of his press service. ‘I asked Iran not to attack Israel, and said that war is useful to anyone,’ he said.

Starmer also concentrated on the urgency of ceasing fire with no delay to release all the hostages and also to improve the humanitarian supplies to Gaza, adding that the two should solve their problems diplomatically.