French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot declared Tuesday that "nothing can justify" Israel's continued military operations and prolonged presence in Lebanon, conveniently ignoring the fundamental reason Israel is there in the first place.
Since the October 7, 2023 massacres, France has adopted a reflexively anti-Israel stance that President Macron and his foreign minister pursue at every opportunity © Mena Today
French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot declared Tuesday that "nothing can justify" Israel's continued military operations and prolonged presence in Lebanon, conveniently ignoring the fundamental reason Israel is there in the first place.
Israel did not choose to remain in southern Lebanon. It was forced there by Hezbollah, which reopened the front on March 2 in retaliation for Israeli-American strikes against Iran, despite a ceasefire theoretically in place since November 2024.
Israel's deepest military incursion into Lebanon since its withdrawal in 2000, including Sunday's seizure of Beaufort Castle, is a direct response to an ongoing threat, not an act of imperial ambition.
Barrot knows this. Yet since the October 7, 2023 massacres, France has adopted a reflexively anti-Israel stance that President Macron and his foreign minister pursue at every opportunity, in press conferences, at the UN, and now on French television.
The minister also warned that Lebanon should not become "a sacrificial victim" of the stalled Iran-US negotiations, a fair point, but one that would carry more weight if Paris directed equal pressure at Hezbollah and its Iranian sponsors, who have consistently sabotaged every ceasefire effort.
Meanwhile, a fourth round of Israeli-Lebanese negotiations is underway in Washington, without France at the table.
That absence speaks volumes. For all its grandstanding, Paris is not advancing peace in the region. It is not gaining diplomatic influence. It is simply making noise, and Israel, like most observers, has long since stopped listening.
A senior Iranian military official declared Tuesday that a resumption of war with the United States is "inevitable," as negotiations between Tehran and Washington over a lasting end to hostilities in the Middle East appear to be stalling.
Lebanon announced a partial ceasefire between Hezbollah and Israel on Monday in what would amount to a limited de-escalation of a conflict that has killed thousands of people and inflamed the broader U.S.-Israeli war with Iran.
Lebanon's embassy in Washington said in a statement on Monday that Hezbollah had accepted a U.S. proposal for a mutual cessation of hostilities that would be extended to encompass all Lebanese territory.
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