Head of French diplomacy Stéphane Séjourné, during an interview with L'Orient-Le Jour in February 2024. (Credit: Mohammad Yassine)
French Foreign Minister Stéphane Séjourné warned on Saturday against a "large-scale confrontation between Israel and Hezbollah," who have been engaged in deadly fighting on the Lebanese-Israeli border since the start of the Gaza war, saying it would "lead to heavy losses."
"A large-scale confrontation between Israel and Hezbollah would lead to heavy losses," the minister warned at a joint press conference with his Egyptian counterpart Sameh Choukri and Jordanian counterpart Ayman Safadi in Cairo, according to local media. He also said that "France has put forward proposals to resolve the crisis between Israel and Lebanon," reported the official National News Agency (NNA).
'Immediate ceasefire' in Gaza
"We agreed to work together to achieve an immediate ceasefire in Gaza," he added. Séjourné said that he and his counterparts were opposed to "any military action at Rafah," a threat brandished by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The Egyptian minister said that France, Egypt and Jordan had insisted on "the need to establish a ceasefire in Gaza." "We stressed our rejection of the displacement of Palestinians from their land ... and discussed the danger of a military operation in densely populated Rafah," he continued.
The Jordanian minister called on the international community to intervene to "put an end to the Israeli madness ... which uses starvation as a weapon against the Palestinians in Gaza." Finally, he said that the Israeli government's blocking of humanitarian aid to the Palestinian enclave was "exacerbating the famine."
Several UN agencies have claimed in recent weeks that the majority of the Gaza Strip's 2.4 million inhabitants are threatened by famine.