“The Lebanese people can no longer be the helpless victims of crimes in the Middle East”

His speech is very rare. Since his defeat in the first round of the 2017 presidential election, François Fillon has withdrawn from political life. And only speaks out when certain current issues require him to do so. The expansion of the war in the Middle East is one. While Israel will commemorate in a few days the Hamas terrorist attack of October 7, the Jewish state is accelerating its offensive against Hezbollah, which attacked its neighbor from southern Lebanon. High point of this response, possible land operations “limited”. What the former prime minister does not validate.

In a column published Monday evening on the site «Agirenorient», the former head of government of Nicolas Sarkozy thunders: “The offensive launched by Israel in Lebanon”after the raids of the Shiite group, “adds to the suffering of the Lebanese people.” “If security” of the Jewish state “is not negotiable”, “neither is that of Lebanon”he adds. Certainly, François Fillon recalls that Hezbollah has “exposed to reprisals” in “increasing terrorist acts” against “Israel and its allies”. And that France “don’t forget” the Drakkar attack in 1983 against its military troops. But, according to him, “the Lebanese people can no longer be the helpless victims of crimes in the Middle East”.

“The end of the country of living together”?

Civil war between 1975 and 1990, explosion of the Port of Beirut in 2020, collapse of its economy… For François Fillon, Lebanon “lives an unbearable martyrdom”. And could, with this new front, no longer be this “only country in the Middle East where Christians and Muslims tried to live together”. Calling on the international community to “act” towards Iran, which “must be dissuaded from any attempt to respond” and Israel, who “cannot survive in the middle of a field of ruin”the former prime minister urges France to play “a particular role in meeting these challenges”.

“She must not have any preconceptions”insists the Sarthois, who asks the executive “not to line up behind American diplomacy” et “not to hide behind an illegible European diplomacy”. Before drawing a parallel between the consequences “tragic” for Europe of a defeat of Ukraine and a possible “collapse of Lebanon”.