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02:28whether it's in Sudan or South Sudan or the DRC or Gaza, or Lebanon, at this moment.
02:36The White House, when I talk to them, are very clear that the Board of Peace is not an alternative
02:40to the UN.
02:41And certainly the other countries that have joined it have been absolutely categoric
02:45that this is not meant to replace the UN. We're still here.
02:49And when you saw that war begin back on the 20th of February,
02:52did you know how big the humanitarian disaster that would come with it?
02:56Yeah. I mean, actually, people talk about the unpredicted consequences of this conflict,
03:01but they were quite predictable, these conflicts.
03:03We know how much we rely on the Straits of Hormuz for commercial traffic and humanitarian traffic
03:08to so many of the places we serve, Somalia, which may go into greater levels of starvation
03:13because we can't get our supplies through the Straits.
03:17But we also knew the risks that Iran would basically take the conflict into Lebanon, across the Gulf.
03:24And what we're seeing is civilians and civilian infrastructure hit in all of these zones,
03:31these theatres of the conflict.
03:33How many people are internally displaced in Iran?
03:35Hundreds of thousands, we estimate.
03:37What's interesting at the moment is that they're not crossing the borders at the scale that we expected.
03:42So you've got a lot of instability in those countries of the region.
03:45And of course, the economic crisis is driving up that movement of people.
03:49But we're not seeing the large numbers of Iranians across the borders at this stage.
03:54And what we're understanding from the local authorities is that local communities are responding
03:58and taking people into their homes.
04:00But that's a situation we're watching very closely.
04:03What about a potential spillover of refugees coming to Europe, potentially,
04:07even though you're not seeing that now yet?
04:09I think we will.
04:10I think we will, because this crisis can't be put neatly back into a box.
04:16Wars don't just end at frontiers.
04:18And actions have consequences.
04:20And we're in a period, globally right now, of reckless adventurism in so many places.
04:27And of course, civilians will be displaced by that.
04:31So how should you prepare for this?
04:32We've got to think about how we coexist between host communities and those arriving in our communities.
04:37Now, that will be politically very difficult.
04:40And the extremes in our politics will use these crises of people on the move to try and gain more
04:46support,
04:47to go for more populist, anti-migrant policies.
04:52But look, one way to help people find their own livelihoods and lives and get their kids to school,
04:58the things that we all want to do in their own communities,
05:01is to make sure we get support for them there.
05:03Then they won't choose to travel to other countries.
05:06And just on that point of people on the move, we've seen thousands internally displaced in Lebanon.
05:11What is the situation like there?
05:13Really grim.
05:14And my boss, the Secretary General, was in Lebanon at the end of last week.
05:18And I spent all weekend on the phone to our humanitarian team there.
05:21We were trying to get a convoy of support down to the south of Lebanon,
05:24which is taking a real smashing up at the moment.
05:27And we had to turn back because of the danger levels.
05:29We lost a colleague in Lebanon last week as well.
05:34So it's getting more and more dangerous for us to operate.
05:38And the needs are going up.
05:39We've got tens of thousands displaced, many of them people who were displaced already by previous conflicts.
05:46Yeah, we saw UN peacekeepers.
05:47They were shot at and wounded.
05:48We need that de-escalation by all sides right now.
05:52Our peacekeepers are there to try to keep the peace, literally.
05:56You know, that's what they're called.
05:57And they should always be protected.
06:00What we're hearing from the Israelis is that there could be a major ground offensive in the south of Lebanon.
06:04Do you fear that Lebanon could be the next Gaza?
06:08I do fear that.
06:09And in fact, I fear that because that's what we're hearing from some Israeli ministers right now
06:14who are speaking in increasingly belligerent language about what they plan to do to Lebanon.
06:19One really interesting development in the last couple of weeks is that for the first time,
06:24the Lebanese government themselves are calling for direct negotiations with Israel,
06:28which hasn't happened in the past.
06:30And so there's potential here to reset the relationship in the region.
06:36But the path for that is through dialogue and diplomacy and not through more brutal violence.
06:42And when the Israeli military say they are just targeting Hezbollah or the Iranian Revolutionary Guard,
06:46do you believe them?
06:47Well, that's what they're saying.
06:48But we're seeing massive damage to civilian areas as well.
06:52We're seeing a lot of damage to health care, for example.
06:57My colleagues on the ground were briefing me yesterday about the number of hospitals and clinics
07:01which have been hit in these attacks.
07:02So it's deeply troubling when you see that impact on civilian infrastructure.
07:09And as I say, schools, hospitals, these should be the first things that we're protecting in conflict.
07:14And from your context there on the ground, where are people moving towards?
07:17So many are moving up into Beirut.
07:20And we know there are large numbers of people sleeping rough now along the Beirut, Corniche, along the seafront there.
07:27Some are going into Syria.
07:28And so some of the Syrian refugees are going back to Syria.
07:31But now you also have some Lebanese refugees now moving into Syria as well.
07:35And then many are moving up into the mountainous areas where they feel they are more safe.
07:41Because the reality is that Israel has issued these instructions to civilians to move from vast, vast areas of the
07:47country.
07:47So it doesn't leave very much space for them to seek refuge.
07:51You're in Brussels this week.
07:53What is the role of the European Union here?
07:54And fill us in on your talks with Kayakalas and others.
07:56So the EU is one of our most principled, reliable donors of humanitarian aid.
08:02And, you know, this year we're looking to save 87 million lives globally.
08:07To do that, we're trying to raise $23 billion.
08:09Now that's less than 1% of what the world will spend this year on guns and arms and defence.
08:14It's that $23 billion is probably less than the US has already spent on this conflict in the last two
08:20and a half weeks.
08:21So I'm here to talk to the EU about how they can back that plan.
08:24And really encouraging news, announcements coming today about more European funding to that hyper-prioritised plan.
08:31Because meanwhile, your funding is being completely cut left, right and centre.
08:34How are you coping with that?
08:35Oh, it's really rough.
08:36If I was running a business and I'd lost half of my funding in a year, then I probably wouldn't
08:41be in my job.
08:42You know, it's been really hard because what we're trying to do is reform the system.
08:45And that's something we're doing because we believe in reform, not because it's forced on us.
08:49Trying to save as many lives as we can.
08:51But without any stability or guarantee of the money coming in.
08:56And so all the time, I'm in Afghanistan, I'm in South Sudan, I'm in Ukraine and Darfur.
09:03Seeing projects that I know will close.
09:06Meeting people who I know will die.
09:08You're just back from Gaza.
09:09Tell us more about the fragile ceasefire there.
09:12It is fragile.
09:13I went in about two and a half months ago, just after we got the ceasefire deal.
09:18And as a result of that ceasefire, we've hugely scaled up the effort.
09:22So we were doing 1.6 million hot meals every day, for example.
09:25We got a lot of shelter in.
09:27We did a big immunisation campaign for cholera.
09:29It wasn't enough.
09:30And kids still died of hypothermia over what was a brutal winter.
09:33But it was a big improvement.
09:34Now, since this resumption of this conflict across the Middle East, our access has been restricted again.
09:41There's only one crossing open.
09:43Kerem Shalom.
09:43Kerem Abu Salam.
09:44So that means we get fewer trucks in, less aid, less food, less medicine, less water, less shelter.
09:50And tell us about Hamas' disarmament plans.
09:53Is that actually working?
09:54I think it was moving in the right direction.
09:57And we were seeing the appointment of a technocratic committee who were planning to go into Gaza
10:01and start to really run Gaza on that technocratic basis.
10:07But my concern at the moment is that that's all delayed by that wider escalation in the Middle East.
10:13We need to get back towards the two-state solution.
10:16And we need Israeli and Palestinian leadership that's committed to security, justice and opportunity
10:22for Palestinians and Israelis.
10:24What about the situation in the West Bank?
10:25Did you visit the West Bank?
10:26We saw this week a family of six Palestinians went out for the day and only two came home.
10:31I worry that this is one of the other issues that's slipping down the agenda while we're
10:34all thinking about Iran, the Straits of Hormuz and so on.
10:39You have very deliberate attacks from extremist settler groups at the moment against civilians
10:46across the West Bank.
10:48So we need the world to pay much more attention to what's going on there and to call for protection
10:52of civilians and accountability for those carrying out the attacks.
10:56And just a final reflection perhaps, do you have any hope for the Middle East?
10:59I have to have hope.
11:01You know, a famous peacemaker, George Mitchell said, diplomacy is 799 days of failure and
11:07one day of success.
11:08So every day I wake up to probably the most horrible inbox in the world.
11:14And my colleagues are going out there risking their lives every day to save lives.
11:18But I get to meet the civilians that we support across the Middle East.
11:22I get to hear their stories.
11:23I get to meet people who are surviving because of that humanitarian support.
11:28And that has to bring you hope.
11:29And ultimately, I'm an optimist about humans.
11:32I think we have these two competing instincts.
11:34One to fight for resource.
11:36And we're doing a lot of that right now.
11:37And those people are shouting pretty loudly.
11:39But another more important one, which is to work together as communities for that resource.
11:44And I believe ultimately that is the most powerful instinct that we have.
11:47And as long as I believe that, then I'll have hope.
11:50Thank you so much, Tom Fletcher, for being with us here on Euronews.
11:53Thank you.
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