Paris Denies French Agents Dispatched to Lebanon, Turkey Borders

French foreign ministry spokesman Bernard Valero on Thursday denied a media report claiming that French intelligence operatives had arrived to the borders of Lebanon and Turkey to train members of the rebel Free Syrian Army, dismissing the report as “baseless.”

“You know that the (French) magazine Le Canard enchainé, (which published the report Wednesday), is a satirical weekly. This report is inaccurate and baseless,” Valero said in an interview with Lebanon’s OTV.

Le Canard enchainé reported that “officers from the General Directorate for External Security, France's external intelligence agency, have been dispatched to northern Lebanon and Turkey in a mission aimed at training and organizing the units that have defected from the Syrian army and grouped under the banner of the rebel Free Syrian Army.”

Valero added: “We are working with the United Nations and our action is merely diplomatic and we have one goal: halting the violence, because what is taking place in Syria is very dangerous.”

The French diplomat stressed that the report was “a work of fiction,” noting that “France has been exerting diplomatic efforts and this is taking place in broad daylight.”

“We have nothing to hide,” the French foreign ministry spokesman added.