BEIRUT — French International Minister Stéphane Séjourné arrived in Lebanon on Sunday as a part of diplomatic makes an attempt to dealer a de-escalation within the battle on the Lebanon-Israel border.
Séjourné met with United Nations peacekeeping forces in south Lebanon and with Lebanon’s parliament speaker, military chief, overseas minister and caretaker prime minister.
France “is refusing to simply accept the worst-case state of affairs” of a full-scale conflict in Lebanon, he advised journalists after the conferences.
“In southern Lebanon, the conflict is already right here, even when it isn’t known as by that identify, and it’s the civilian inhabitants who’s paying the worth,” he mentioned.
The Lebanese militant group Hezbollah has exchanged near-daily strikes with Israeli forces within the border area — and generally past — for nearly seven months towards the backdrop of Israel’s conflict towards Hezbollah ally Hamas in Gaza.
Israeli strikes have killed greater than 350 individuals in Lebanon, most of them fighters with Hezbollah and allied teams but additionally together with greater than 50 civilians. Strikes by Hezbollah have killed a minimum of 10 civilians and 12 troopers in Israel. Tens of hundreds are displaced on all sides of the border.
A French diplomatic official who spoke on situation of anonymity as a result of they weren’t approved to talk to journalists mentioned the aim of Séjourné’s go to was to convey France’s “fears of a conflict on Lebanon” and to submit an modification to a proposal Paris had beforehand introduced to Lebanon for a diplomatic decision to the border battle.
Western diplomats have introduced ahead a sequence of proposals for a cessation of hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah. Most of these would hinge on Hezbollah transferring its forces a number of kilometers (miles) from the border, a beefed-up Lebanese military presence and negotiations for Israeli forces to withdraw from disputed factors alongside the border the place Lebanon says Israel has been occupying small patches of Lebanese territory because it withdrew from the remainder of south Lebanon in 2000.
The eventual aim is full implementation of a U.N. decision that dropped at an finish a brutal monthlong conflict between Israel and Hezbollah in 2006.
The earlier French proposal would have concerned Hezbollah withdrawing its forces 10 kilometers (6 miles) from the border.
Hezbollah has signaled willingness to entertain the proposals however has mentioned there might be no deal in Lebanon earlier than there’s a cease-fire in Gaza. Israeli officers, in the meantime, have mentioned {that a} Gaza cease-fire doesn’t mechanically imply it’s going to halt its strikes in Lebanon, even when Hezbollah does so.
Séjourné declined to supply extra particulars in regards to the newest model of France’s proposal forward of his deliberate journey to Israel on Tuesday. He mentioned he may have “consultations” with Israeli authorities to maneuver towards an settlement.
The French overseas minister additionally pushed for the Lebanese political factions to come back to an settlement on a candidate to fill a year-and-a-half-long presidential vacuum. Séjourné mentioned that Lebanon wants a president in place as a way to be “invited to the negotiating desk” and to have the ability to implement any settlement that may be reached on the border challenge.
Throughout the talks, Lebanese officers additionally raised the problem of the continuing presence of greater than 1 million Syrian refugees in Lebanon, which has turn out to be an more and more contentious challenge. Lebanese officers have more and more known as for Western international locations to facilitate their return to Syria.
Séjourné acknowledged the burden positioned on Lebanon by internet hosting such numerous refugees, and mentioned that “all involved events should work to make this return potential in a voluntary, dignified and protected method in accordance with worldwide legislation.”
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Related Press writers Ali Sharaffedine in Beirut and Sylvie Corbett in Paris contributed to this report.