French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna called on Lebanon and Hezbollah to do everything possible to prevent a third war with Israel along the border between the two countries.
“We must do everything to prevent an escalation,” Colonna told reporters in Israel Sunday, during her one-day visit to the country.
She is expected to visit Lebanon on Monday. Lebanon was part of the French Empire between World War I and II. France has attempted to use its special historic connection to Lebanon to help prevent an outbreak of war.
Israel said on Sunday it had hit weapons launch sites and facilities belonging to Hezbollah in Lebanon in response to cross-border fire, while the Iran-backed group said it had attacked Israeli army targets.
Israel and Hezbollah fighters have been trading fire along the frontier on an almost daily basis since the war in Gaza erupted more than two months ago, in the worst hostilities since a 2006 conflict.
FM Eli Cohen: we must ensure the security of those who live in Israel's north
The violence, which has largely been contained to the border area, has killed more than 130 people in Lebanon, including 94 Hezbollah fighters and 17 civilians. In Israel, the hostilities have killed eight soldiers and four civilians.
Foreign Minister Eli Cohen, who spoke during a joint press conference with Colonna, accused the Iranian proxy group Hezbollah of seeking to escalate and provoke a war on Israel’s northern border. The Iranian proxy group the Houthis is also attempting to provoke a war by attacking ships in the Red Sea along critical shipping routes.
“The fingerprints of the Iran terror regime are all over those attacks,” Cohen said.
Israel is not interested in war with Hezbollah, but it would do so if necessary to protect the communities along that border whose more than 50,000 residents evacuated their homes over two months ago fearing an attack.
“We have to ensure their security in order for them to go back to their homes the only way to do it, is by forcing Hezbollah to withdraw to the northern of the Litani River,” he said.
To avoid such a war, the international community must insist on the full implementation of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1701, he said.
That resolution approved in 2006 set out the ceasefire terms that ended the Second Lebanon War, including insisting that the Lebanese army was the only military force that could exist between the Litani River and Lebanon’s border with Israel.
That aspect of the resolution has never been implemented and Hezbollah has entrenched itself in that areas along the Israeli border.
Cohen said that if the international community can ensure compliance with Resolution 1701, then “we will be left with no choice but to do it ourselves.”
France could play a positive and significant role in preventing a war in Lebanon, he said.
Reuters contributed to this report.