France stands by Lebanon and “will not fail it,” assured French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot on Wednesday, on the eve of the international support conference being held in Paris.
“The aim is first and foremost to reaffirm the need for a ceasefire, a diplomatic resolution, and an end to hostilities; to mobilize humanitarian aid from as many countries as possible; and to support Lebanon's institutions, first and foremost the Lebanese armed forces,” stressed Jean-Noël Barrot on RTL radio.
The conference in support of Lebanon will be opened by French President Emmanuel Macron, who initiated the event.
“It will be attended by 70 countries and 15 international organizations,” Barrot claimed, adding that “all those we invited have attended.”
The minister did not, however, specify the level of representation.
Prime Minister Najib Mikati will be present, unlike U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who was in Israel on Tuesday.
Last month, at the United Nations General Assembly in New York, France and the U.S. initiated a proposal for a temporary ceasefire in Lebanon, which is embroiled in war between the pro-Iranian Islamist movement Hezbollah and Israel.
France wishes to enforce UN Security Council Resolution 1701, which ended the previous war between Israel and Hezbollah in 2006 and stipulates that only peacekeepers and the Lebanese army should be deployed in southern Lebanon bordering Israel.
This resolution “guarantees Lebanon's sovereignty and unity on the one hand, and Israel's security on the other, so that the 60,000 people who had to leave their homes in northern Israel after October 7 can return,” Barrot added.
When asked about Iran's role in the conflict, he described it as “a destabilizing force in the region.”
It has been “a support” for the Palestinian Islamist movement “Hamas, which was guilty of the worst anti-Semitic massacre in our history” on October 7, 2023, in Israel, and “which undoubtedly encouraged Hezbollah to follow suit on October 8, 2023, by dragging Lebanon into a war it had not chosen,” he said.
After a year of border firefights, Israel and the pro-Iranian Lebanese Hezbollah are now engaged in open warfare in Lebanon, where the Israeli army launched a ground offensive in the south at the end of September.
With AFP
Comments