In an interview broadcast by France Inter this Saturday, October 5, the President of the Republic affirmed that “the priority” is “that we return to a political solution” in the conflict in the Middle East.
The President of the Republic Emmanuel Macron spoke out this Saturday, October 5, in favor of stopping arms deliveries to Israel which are used in the conflict in Gaza.
“I think that today, the priority is that we return to a political solution, that we stop delivering weapons to carry out the fighting in Gaza,” he declared on France Inter. “France does not deliver any,” he added.
US President Joe Biden has so far refused to use arms against Israel, apart from suspending a delivery of bombs in May. The United Kingdom, for its part, announced in September the suspension of around thirty arms export licenses to Israel out of a total of 350, after an examination concluding that there was “a risk” that they would be used in violation of the humanitarian law.
In this interview carried out as part of the 19th Francophonie summit which opened on Friday in Villers-Coterêts, Emmanuel Macron stressed wanting to “continue the policy” of France since the terrorist attack of October 7 carried out by Hamas and condemned by Paris “with the greatest firmness”.
“Lebanon cannot become a new Gaza”
“We recognized Israel’s right to defend itself, to defend its population, but as a democracy respecting international law, humanitarian law must do,” explained the head of state, recalling that France had been “from October 2023 (…) one of the first European countries to request a ceasefire”.
Believing that “we do not fight against terrorism and against terrorists by sacrificing a civilian population”, the President of the Republic is however not very optimistic about the possibility of a ceasefire in the near future. “I think we are not being heard,” he regretted.
In the eyes of the President of the Republic, the policy pursued by Benjamin Netanyahu’s government constitutes “a mistake, including for the security of Israel”: “What is happening, and we see it clearly in our opinions public opinions, but we see it in an even more terrible way in the public opinions of the region, it is basically a resentment which is being born, a hatred which is nourished by this.
Emmanuel Macron also indicated that his other priority was to “avoid escalation” while Israel continues to carry out bombings in Lebanon and has expanded its operations against Hezbollah. “The Lebanese people cannot in turn be sacrificed, and Lebanon cannot become a new Gaza,” he pleaded.
