France “urges Israel to refrain from any land incursion” into Lebanon

The President of the Lebanese Council of Ministers, Najib Mikati, called for a ceasefire with Israel, after a meeting with the head of French diplomacy, Jean-Noël Barrot, the first senior Western diplomat to visit Beirut since intensification of Israeli strikes on Lebanon.

“The key to the solution is to end Israeli aggression against Lebanon, and to return to the call launched by the United States and France with the support of the European Union and Arab and foreign countries in in favor of a ceasefire »according to a message posted on X. “The priority is the implementation of resolution 1701” of the United Nations, which ended the 2006 war between Israel and Lebanese Hezbollah, he added.

Paris and Washington, joined by Arab, Western and European countries, called last week for a “immediate twenty-one day ceasefire” between Israel and Hezbollah for “give diplomacy a chance”. An initiative ignored by Israel, which, conversely, increased its strikes and spectacularly eliminated the leader of Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, on Friday.

Emmanuel Macron declared his opposition to Lebanon “become a new Gaza”evoking the number “absolutely shocking” civilian casualties. More than a thousand people have been killed in Lebanon, according to Lebanese authorities, since the start of the military escalation between Israel and Hezbollah in mid-September.