EU admits it applies double standards towards Ukraine, Palestine

Madrid (QNN)- The European Union’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, has admitted that the 27-nation bloc applies double standards when it comes to the wars in Ukraine and Palestine, saying “international politics is to a large degree about applying double standards.”

In an interview with El Pais newspaper released on Thursday, Borrell was asked why Brussels is so much more willing to support the people of Ukraine than the people of Gaza.

“We are often criticized for double standards. But international politics is to a large degree about applying double standards. We do not use the same criteria for all problems,” Borrell said.

Borrell also suggested that the United States was to blame for a lack of resolution to what he called the “Middle East conflict.”

“There is no solution to the Middle East conflict without a very strong commitment on the part of the US,” he said, adding that many attempts have been made but at the moment there appears to be no path forwards.

Earlier in the interview, Borrell had said that supporting Kiev against Moscow’s military attacks was a “moral imperative” for Western nations.

“Resolving the situation with those people trapped in an open-air prison, which Gaza is, is not in the hands of the EU,” Borrel said, calling the deteriorating conditions of life in Gaza “scandalous” and “a shame,” but would not be drawn on the origins of the humanitarian crisis.

When the war in Ukraine broke out this year, Palestinians questioned the way European and the US reacted, particularly the difference in the international community’s response compared to the decades-long Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories.

Drawing on the decisive response from Washington, London, Berlin, Paris, and Brussels against Moscow, Palestinians also wondered why the same treatment has not been applied to them.

Moreover, the US and many other Western nations took swift measures following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, imposing crippling economic sanctions almost immediately, but have avoided taking similar steps against Israeli occupation.

Borrell’s remarks came only two days after the Israeli occupation launched on August 5 an offensive on the Gaza Strip which lasted for three days and resulted in the killing of 49 Palestinian civilians, including 17 children and 4 women, and injuring over 360 others.