BEIRUT – French Foreign Minister Stéphane Séjourné arrived in Lebanon on Sunday as part of diplomatic attempts to mediate a de-escalation in the conflict on the Lebanon-Israel border.
Séjourné met with United Nations peacekeepers in southern Lebanon and the speaker of the Lebanese parliament, head of the army, foreign minister and acting prime minister.
France “refuses to accept the worst-case scenario” of a full-scale war in Lebanon, he told journalists after the meetings.
“In southern Lebanon, the war is already here, even if it is not called by that name, and it is the civilian population who are paying the price,” he said.
The Lebanese militant group Hezbollah has been exchanging almost daily attacks with Israeli forces in the border region – and sometimes beyond – for almost seven months, against the backdrop of Israel’s war against Hezbollah’s ally Hamas in Gaza.
Israeli attacks killed more than 350 people in Lebanon, most of them fighters from Hezbollah and allied groups, but also including more than 50 civilians. Hezbollah attacks have killed at least 10 civilians and 12 soldiers in Israel. Tens of thousands are displaced on each side of the border.
A French diplomatic official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to journalists said the aim of Séjourné’s visit was to convey France’s “fears of a war in Lebanon” and to present an amendment to a proposal Paris had put forward. previously to Lebanon for a diplomatic resolution of the border conflict.
Western diplomats have put forward a series of proposals for the cessation of hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah. Most of them would depend on Hezbollah moving its forces several kilometers (miles) from the border, a reinforced Lebanese army presence, and negotiations for Israeli forces to withdraw from disputed points along the border where Lebanon says Israel has occupied small areas of Lebanese territory. territory since it withdrew from the rest of southern Lebanon in 2000.
The ultimate goal is the full implementation of a UN resolution that ended a brutal month-long war between Israel and Hezbollah in 2006.
The previous French proposal would have involved withdrawing Hezbollah forces 10 kilometers (6 miles) from the border.
Hezbollah signaled its willingness to welcome the proposals, but said there will be no agreement in Lebanon before there is a ceasefire in Gaza. Meanwhile, Israeli officials have said that a ceasefire in Gaza does not automatically mean it will stop its attacks in Lebanon, even if Hezbollah does so.
Séjourné declined to provide further details on the latest version of the French proposal ahead of his planned trip to Israel on Tuesday. He said he will have “consultations” with Israeli authorities to move towards an agreement.
The French foreign minister also pushed for Lebanese political factions to agree on a candidate to fill a year-and-a-half presidential vacuum. Séjourné said Lebanon needs a president in power to be “invited to the negotiating table” and to be able to implement any agreement that can be reached on the border issue.
During the talks, Lebanese authorities also raised the issue of the continued presence of more than 1 million Syrian refugees in Lebanon, which has become an increasingly controversial issue. Lebanese authorities have increasingly called on Western countries to facilitate their return to Syria.
Séjourné acknowledged the burden placed on Lebanon by hosting such a large number of refugees, and said that “all parties involved must work to make this return possible in a voluntary, dignified and safe manner, in accordance with international law.”
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Associated Press writers Ali Sharaffedine in Beirut and Sylvie Corbett in Paris contributed to this report.
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