French President Emmanuel Macron spoke out on Saturday in favor of stopping arms deliveries to Israel that 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 radio France Inter. “France does not deliver any,” he added during this interview recorded on October 1.
The UK has already reduced its arms exports
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 international humanitarian law in the conflict between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.
The French president deplored that the lines were not moving in Gaza, despite all the diplomatic efforts made to obtain a ceasefire, particularly with Israel.
“Avoid escalation”
“I think we are not being heard. I said it again to Prime Minister (Benjamin) Netanyahu and I think it is a mistake, including for the security of Israel tomorrow,” stressed Emmanuel Macron.
“We see it clearly in our public opinions, 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”, said he added.
After the launch of the Israeli operation against the pro-Iranian Islamist movement Hezbollah in Lebanon, Emmanuel Macron also recalled that the “priority is to avoid escalation”. “The Lebanese people cannot in turn be sacrificed and Lebanon cannot become a new Gaza,” he insisted.
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