French Foreign Minister meets top Lebanese officials in Beirut
France’s top diplomat Thursday met with top Lebanese officials in Beirut, as the region anticipates a retaliatory attack on Israel from Iran and Hezbollah and as negotiations for a cease-fire in the war-torn Gaza Strip recommenced in Qatar.
“We are all concerned about the regional situation. Our message is simple which is de-escalation,” said French Foreign Minister Stéphane Séjourné following a meeting with Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri.
France "supports Lebanon, and in this context and in the context of regional peace, we hope for the ceasefire... in the Gaza Strip, which... will be necessary to guarantee peace in the region," he said.
Sejourne expressed support for the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon, saying France was working to "reinforce and provide a mandate" for the peacekeepers for the next 12 months, as its expiry approaches at the end of August.
He also said France supported "reinforcing the Lebanese army" in the country's south.
United Nations Security Council Resolution 1701 ended a 2006 conflict between Israel and Hezbollah and called for the Lebanese army and United Nations peacekeepers to be the only armed forces deployed in south Lebanon.
Calls have increased for the full implementation of the resolution as a way of ending the current violence.
Speaker Berri expressed Lebanon's "keenness on the need to extend" the UNIFIL mandate.
Hezbollah and the Israeli military have traded strikes along the Lebanese-Israel border since Oct.8, a day after Hamas’ surprise attack into southern Israel sparked the ongoing war in Gaza. Hezbollah maintains that it will stop its attacks on northern Israel once there is a ceasefire.
Hezbollah and Iran's promised strikes come after a rare Israeli strike into Beirut's southern suburbs killed a top Hezbollah commander last month and an explosion hours in Tehran later widely blamed on Israel that killed Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh. Neither have launched their strikes over two weeks after the attacks.
According to a statement from caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati’s office, Séjourné said he had appreciated the “self-restraint” from the southern Lebanese side, where Hezbollah has launched its attacks on Israel.
Mikati told journalists following the meeting that “we can only be silent, patient and pray” during the ongoing tense situation.
France and the United States for months have scrambled to lay the foundations for talks between Lebanon and Israel to implement a United Nations Security Council resolution that would demarcate the two countries’ land border and keep armed forces away from the southern border except the Lebanese military and U.N. peacekeepers.
Séjourné’s visit also comes a day after United States envoy Amos Hochstein met with Lebanese political and military officials, in his ongoing bid for regional deescalation and a ceasefire in Gaza based on a proposal presented by U.S. President Joe Biden.
Source: Associated Press, Agence France Presse
| Copyright © 2012 Naharnet.com. All Rights Reserved. | https://www.naharnet.com/stories/en/307290 |