Franco-Israeli defense cooperation is under pressure. Since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas in October 2023, voices have continued to be raised to denounce the countries which continue their arms exports to the Jewish state, whose operations in the Gaza Strip are criticized from all sides. On April 5, the United Nations Human Rights Council passed a resolution calling for a “embargo” on all weapons destined for Israel. France abstained, but this text threw new weight on bilateral defense cooperation, already on a narrow path.
In terms of armaments, transfers of equipment from France to Israel represent only a very small percentage of French defense exports: 0.2%, out of a total of 27 billion euros in 2022, or around 15 million euros for arms deliveries, and 34 million euros, out of a total of 8.8 billion, for so-called “dual-use” goods. according to the latest figures available. These licenses concern “mainly transfers of spare parts”assured the Minister of the Armed Forces, Sébastien Lecornu, during an interview granted to ParisianApril 21.
But these transfers at a minimum nevertheless cover a wide range of components, sometimes key to the manufacture of more complex equipment. On March 26, the investigative media Disclosed and the website Marsactu thus revealed the presence, in the port of Marseille, of a cargo of links for small caliber ammunition, intended for a subsidiary of the Israeli defense giant Elbit. If it appeared that the license granted only allowed, according to the Ministry of the Armed Forces, re-export to third countries, and no use by the Israeli army, this information highlighted the ambiguity of diplomatic exchanges. military between France and the Hebrew State.
Read also | Sébastien Lecornu returns to the revelations of France’s delivery of cartridge parts to Israel: “The license does not give the army the right to use these components”
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A gray area assumed by Paris. “With the Israelis, we help each other a little, we sell each other equipment a little, we are close enough to them to know what they do, but at the same time we are competitors, and above all, there has a very clear desire on the part of France not to help the operations carried out in Gaza and to take as few risks as possible in arms deliveries”summarizes a Source within the executive. The revelation, in 2021, of the Pegasus affair, the name of the Israeli surveillance software sold to many countries, some of which used it to spy on French political leaders, also left its mark.
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