France says wants to avoid 'escalation' between Lebanon and Israel
France hopes to avoid "an escalation" on the border between Israel and Lebanon, the French Ministry of the Armed Forces reiterated on Monday in Tel Aviv, where he met political figures including Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
"No one, neither in Tel Aviv, nor in Jerusalem, nor in Beirut, wants war. (...) The real challenge for us is to ensure that this escalation, which may seem inevitable, does not happen," declared Sébastien Lecornu in an interview with AFP.
The priority, according to him, is to implement the U.N. Resolution 1701 so “that one party does not shoot at the other side of the border and that the other side (...) does not retaliate with the risk of escalation”.
U.N. Security Council Resolution 1701, which ended the 2006 conflict, called for all armed personnel to pull back north of the Litani River, except for United Nations peacekeepers and Lebanese state security forces.
The Israeli army says Hezbollah attacks "violate U.N. Security Council Resolution 1701" while Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati said Lebanon was ready to implement international resolutions if Israel also complied and withdrew from disputed territory.
Source: Agence France Presse
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