French President Emmanuel Macron on Friday called an Israeli air strike on Beirut’s southern suburb "unacceptable", saying it was a "violation of the ceasefire" agreed in November between Israel and Hezbollah.
Speaking at a joint press conference with Lebanese counterpart President Joseph Aoun, at the Elysees Palace, Macron said “I expressed my solidarity with the people of Beirut following the Israeli airstrike."
Such attacks "play into the hands of Hezbollah,” Macron told reporters.
President Aoun arrived in Paris early Friday on his first official visit to the West since assuming the top post on January 9. France has been a key player in facilitating Aoun’s election that ended more than two years of presidential vacancy.
Today’s Israeli escalation was in retaliation for rockets fired toward its territory, rattling an already fragile truce in Lebanon that had largely ended more than a year of hostilities with Hezbollah.
Macron said that he would discuss the attack with US President Donald Trump "in the coming hours" and with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu within two days.
"There’s no justification for such strikes,” he stressed. “The ceasefire framework we defined, agreed to by Lebanon and Israel, must be respected. Today, Israel unilaterally broke it.”
Underlining the necessity to preserve Lebanon’s sovereignty, ensure full security on both sides of the border, and implement the ceasefire agreement reached with Israel, Macron said that Paris “has suggested deploying UNIFIL forces in sensitive areas in the south of Lebanon, in coordination with the Lebanese Army and under the supervision of the (ceasefire) Monitoring Committee.”
For his part, President Aoun denounced "any odious attempts to pull Lebanon back into a storm of violence."
“We reject the idea of bringing Lebanon back into a cycle of violence. What is happening only strengthens our determination to assert our authority over all our land in order to protect Lebanon and its people,” Aoun told reporters.
“I call on Lebanon's friends around the world, from Paris to Washington, to act quickly to stop the deterioration and help Lebanon implement international resolutions along all of our borders,” Aoun added.
On the Syrian refugee crisis, Aoun called for “an international plan to finance their return home at a cost much lower than the cost of their staying in Lebanon, which is exhausting both for them and for Lebanon.” He added, “This is what we have begun negotiating with the concerned parties.”
Aoun also vowed to work on building “a strong, sovereign state, protected by its army and official forces alone.”
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