Will France succeed in sparing Lebanon a full-scale war?
French Foreign Minister Stephane Sejourne said "a potential truce in Gaza must be accompanied by a similar truce in Lebanon," as he visited Cairo.
During his visit Wednesday, Sejourne exchanged with Egypt's top diplomat Sameh Shoukry assessments on the ongoing truce negotiations between Hamas and Israel", according to the Egyptian foreign ministry.
Sejourne's regional tour, which has taken him to Lebanon, Saudi Arabia and Israel in recent days, comes as Gaza's Hamas rulers weigh the latest plan for a truce with Israel proposed in Cairo talks with U.S., Egyptian and Qatari mediators.
The Palestinian armed faction is considering a plan for a 40-day ceasefire and the exchange of hostages for Palestinian prisoners, nearly seven months into the devastating war.
Senior Hamas official Suhail al-Hindi told AFP Wednesday that the group will "deliver its response clearly within a very short period".
An Israeli official had told AFP the government "will wait for answers until Wednesday night", before deciding whether to send envoys to Cairo to nail down a deal.
Sejourne also shared with Shoukry "the results of his recent visit to Lebanon", where months of cross-border violence between Israel and Hezbollah have killed at least 385 people, mostly fighters but also including 73 civilians, according to an AFP tally.
Israel says 11 soldiers and nine civilians have been killed on its side of the border.
Following a series of meetings in Lebanon on Sunday, Séjourné told journalists that France “is refusing to accept the worst-case scenario” of a full-scale war in Lebanon. “In southern Lebanon, the war is already here, even if it’s not called by that name, and it’s the civilian population who’s paying the price,” he said.
Before heading to Israel, Sejourne submitted to Lebanese officials an amendment to a proposal Paris had previously presented to Lebanon for a diplomatic resolution to the border conflict.
"A number of proposals that we made to the Lebanese side have been shared (with you)," Sejourne said ahead of a meeting with Foreign Minister Israel Katz in Jerusalem. "We have a relationship with Lebanon, 20,000 citizens there, and the war in 2006 was particularly dramatic for them."
Source: Naharnet
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