Macron says committed to containing Lebanon-Israel violence
French President Emmanuel Macron has told caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati that France would do "everything in its power" to stop violence spiralling between Lebanon and Israel, his office said.
Macron told Mikati in Paris that he would "continue to act for Lebanon's stability" to protect it from escalating tensions in the Middle East.
The region has been plunged into turmoil since October 7, when Hamas militants launched an attack that allegedly led to the deaths of 1,170 people in southern Israel according to Israeli official figures.
Israel's retaliatory offensive has killed at least 34,012 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, the territory's health ministry said on Friday.
Lebanon's Iran-backed Hezbollah has engaged in near-daily exchanges of fire with Israel since the war started.
There has also been a surge in violence involving Tehran-aligned groups in Iraq, Yemen and Syria.
The specter of a regional war has only been accentuated in the past week following Iran's first direct attack on Israel with hundreds of drones and missiles, and reports of an Israeli retaliation.
Macron brought up France's participation in a U.N. peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon -- on Israel's northern border -- and "underlined everyone's responsibility towards it," his office added.
The French leader also discussed Lebanon's long-running political crisis. Mikati's government holds only limited powers.
Lebanese lawmakers have failed to designate a successor to former president Michel Aoun since October 2022 as parliament remains deadlocked between Hezbollah and its opponents.
Source: Agence France Presse
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