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Middle East conflict

Europe partly responsible for Hamas attack on Israel — Kissinger

The former US secretary of state added that the Middle East conflict is fraught with "the danger of escalating and bringing in other Arab countries under the pressure of their public opinion"

BERLIN, October 12. /TASS/. Europe is partly responsible for the attack of the Palestinian group Hamas on Israel, and the latest escalation of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict may get worse, former US Secretary of State and national security adviser Henry Kissinger told Welt TV.

According to the diplomat, the group would not have taken such aggressive action against Israel unless it was sure that it could carry it out without doing serious harm to itself, that it would be backed by its neighbors and with the tacit consent of other countries, including Europe. The real reason behind the Hamas attack, according to Kissinger, is "to mobilize the Arab world against Israel and to get off the track of peaceful negotiations." In this context, he called on the EU to warn other countries against getting involved in the conflict, letting them know that if they take such a step, "they would pay a price for engaging."

Kissinger also opined that the Middle East conflict is fraught with "the danger of escalating and bringing in other Arab countries under the pressure of their public opinion." "And then we are back to where we were in 1973. And then in 1973 we had a good fortune to Sadat (Egyptian President Muhammad Anwar el-Sadat - TASS), an Arab leader with a vision of the future, and therefore, it was possible to make a peace agreement with him and <…> a similar agreement with Syria," the expert explained. "I don’t think it’s possible to find leaders among the Hamas group. I think Hamas should be excluded from a political world," he added.

On October 6, 1973, Egyptian President Muhammad Anwar el-Sadat, along with his Syrian counterpart Hafez al-Assad, launched an attack on Israel to regain territories lost in the 1967 Six-Day War, a conflict between Israel and a coalition of Arab states (Egypt lost the Sinai Peninsula and Gaza, Syria lost the Golan Heights). The attack was an international crisis that Kissinger worked to resolve as Secretary of State. It was finally resolved on October 24 with his active participation.

Middle East conflict

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No further details were provided

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