Emmanuel Macron issues a warning to Benyamin Netanyahu. The Israeli Prime Minister must not “free himself from UN decisions”, warned the President of the Republic this Tuesday, October 15, according to participants in the Council of Ministers, recalling that it is a UN resolution which “created” the State of Israel.
“Mr. Netanyahu must not forget that his country was created by a decision of the UN,” said the head of state in reference to the vote in November 1947 by the United Nations General Assembly on the partition plan. of Palestine into a Jewish state and an Arab state. “And, therefore, this is not the time to free ourselves from UN decisions,” he continued as Israel leads a ground offensive against the pro-Iranian Hezbollah movement in the south of the Lebanon, where peacekeepers are deployed.
Benyamin Netanyahu’s response was not long in coming. At the end of the day this Tuesday, the Israeli Prime Minister responded to the comments of the head of the Élysée by saying that the creation of Israel came from the victory of the 1948 war, and not from a decision of the UN. “A reminder to the President of France: it was not the UN resolution that established the State of Israel, but rather the victory achieved in the War of Independence with the blood of heroic fighters, many of whom were survivors of the Holocaust – notably of the Vichy regime in France,” he said in a statement.
“The remarks attributed to the President of the Republic, if confirmed, are both a historical and political mistake,” reacted the president of Crif, Yonathan Arfi, in a message on X.
Macron condemns shootings targeting UNIFIL
United Nations Security Council Resolution 1701 affirms that only the Lebanese army and this UN peace mission (UNIFIL) must be deployed in southern Lebanon and stipulates the cessation of hostilities on both sides of the border. But Benjamin Netanyahu affirmed that Hezbollah was using “the installations and positions of UNIFIL as cover to carry out its attacks” against Israel, and on Sunday called on the head of the UN, Antonio Guterres, to put the Blue Helmets “at Shelter immediately.
UNIFIL, with 10,000 men, including a contingent of 700 French, denounced “shocking violations” by Israel against its positions, reporting a “forceful” entry on Sunday of two tanks into one of them. between them. The Israeli army said one of its tanks crashed into a UNIFIL post while evacuating wounded soldiers.
ALSO READ “We are already at war”: the dismay of the LebaneseTuesday, Emmanuel Macron must “reiterate his condemnations to the Israeli Prime Minister”, according to Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot. On Friday, the French president deemed it “completely unacceptable” that the Blue Helmets were “deliberately targeted by the Israeli armed forces”.
On Saturday, he expressed his “great concern about the intensification of Israeli strikes in Lebanon and their dramatic consequences for the civilian populations”, and at the same time asked Hezbollah to “immediately cease” the strikes against Israel, reiterating his call for a immediate ceasefire in Lebanon.
Washington threatens to suspend aid
Paris is not the only capital to raise its voice against the Israeli Prime Minister. Washington has threatened to suspend some of its military assistance to Israel if there is no significant improvement in humanitarian aid in the besieged Gaza Strip, giving it a 30-day deadline. The warning comes in a letter dated Sunday to Israeli authorities from US Foreign and Defense Ministers Antony Blinken and Lloyd Austin, in which they deplore the current low level of humanitarian aid for the Palestinian territory devastated by a year of war.
At the same time, the United States increased pressure on Israel, saying it was “opposed” to the bombing campaign carried out on Beirut. The Israeli Prime Minister said he was opposed to any “unilateral” ceasefire in Lebanon, which would not prevent Hezbollah from regrouping its forces in the border area, at a time when the Islamist movement is challenging Israel in threatening to attack him “everywhere” on his territory.
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