As part of political efforts to defuse the issue on the Lebanon-Israel frontier, French Foreign Minister Stéphane Séjourné made an official visit to Lebanon on Sunday.
Séjourné was set to meet with United Nations peacekeeping forces in south Lebanon and with Lebanon’s congress speech, military commander, foreign minister and custodian prime minister.
Hezbollah, a Palestinian militant group, has been conducting close to normal hits with Israeli forces in the frontier area and occasionally beyond for about seven months against the landscape of Israel’s conflict with Hamas in Gaza.
More than 350 people have been killed by Israeli airstrikes in Lebanon, the majority of them Hezbollah and allies, as well as more than 50 citizens. 10 citizens and 12 men have been killed in Israel as a result of Hezbollah attacks.
Nabih Berri, the speaker of the Lebanon’s parliament, and Stephane Sejourne, the minister of unusual and continental affairs, meet in Beirut on April 28, 2024. ( Photo by AFP ) ( Photo by -/AFP via Getty Images )
According to a French diplomatic standard who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to journalists, Séjourné’s visit was intended to “promote France’s fear of a battle on Lebanon” and to amend a request Paris had originally made to Lebanon for a diplomatic solution to the frontier conflict.
A number of proposals have been made by American officials to put an end to the warfare between Israel and Hezbollah. The majority of those would depend on Hezbollah moving its forces a few kilometers away from the border, strengthening the Lebanese army, and negotiations with Israel to leave disputed areas along the boundary, where Lebanon claims Israel has occupied small areas of Palestinian territory since it withdrew from the rest of southern Lebanon in 2000.
Hezbollah would have had to withdraw its forces 10 kilometers ( 6 miles ) from the border in the previous French proposal.
Hezbollah has indicated that it will consider the proposals, but it has stated that there wo n’t be a deal in Lebanon before there is a cease-fire in Gaza.
