Middle East: France has sent "very direct" messages to Hezbollah to avoid an escalation

Europe 1 with AFP // Photo credit: Ludovic MARIN / AFP 23:08 p.m., October 20, 2023

France is conveying "very directly" messages of moderation and de-escalation to Lebanon's Hezbollah in order to dissuade it from entering the conflict between Israel and Palestinian Hamas, French President Emmanuel Macron told reporters on Friday.

"There is a situation of extremely worrying tension"

"We passed messages very directly through our ambassador and our services to Hezbollah. We have also handed them over to the Lebanese authorities," he said. "There has been rocket fire but there has been no escalation today in this matter. But we remain very cautious. We pass on these messages of moderation on a daily basis," he added. Backed by Iran, Hezbollah has a very large military strike force.

According to the Israeli military, exchanges of fire increased on Friday in the border area between Israel and Lebanon, which has been under very high tension since the bloody attack launched by Hamas on Israel on October 7. And the evacuation of the city of Kyriat Shmona was announced. "There is a situation of tension that in any case is extremely worrying and poses a great risk to the entire region. We warn everyone, we do everything to avoid escalation, but the security situation remains by definition unstable, because it is at a very high level of tension and pressure," Macron said.

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The French president also said on Friday that he did not rule out a trip to the Middle East "in the coming days, the very next weeks", if he managed to "obtain useful things" thanks to this trip. This trip "will depend on the exchanges that I will have in the coming hours and days with all the leaders of the region," he said. He also said that France would send "emergency humanitarian aid" as soon as possible, including "medicines", to Egypt and to the population of Gaza.

France wants "to be able to accompany the efforts that are being made by Egypt, supported by the United States, through the opening of Rafah", the border crossing from which besieged Gazans are desperately waiting for the arrival of the first convoys of international aid. "We have decided to increase the humanitarian aid we provide to the Palestinians by 10 million euros," Macron said. This amounted to €95 million last year.