CrossFireArabia
French President Emmanuel Macron urged countries to stop providing weapons to Israel for its ongoing genocide war in the Gaza Strip and expressed concern that Lebanon should not be allowed to “become a new Gaza.”
“The priority is that we return to a political solution, that we stop delivering weapons to carry out fighting in Gaza,” Macron said in an interview with France Inter, a public radio station aired Saturday.
Macron added, “France is not delivering any” weapons to Israel.
He stated: “I think we are not being heard.”
“I think it is a mistake, including for the security of Israel,” he said, adding that the war was leading to “hatred”.
Macron’s call comes amid mounting public scrutiny of the high death toll in Gaza and Israel’s widening aggression in Lebanon.
Macron said Lebanon should not be allowed to “become a new Gaza,” referring to Israel’s ground and air offensive in the country. “The Lebanese people cannot, in turn, be sacrificed,” he added.
According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, while France did not export any major arms to Israel in recent years, it has supplied components for arms.
At a summit for French-speaking leaders in Paris, Saturday, according to the Washington Post, Macron said, “If we call for a cease-fire, consistency is to not provide weapons of war. And I think that those who provide them cannot every day call for a cease-fire alongside us and continue to supply them.”
Last month, Britain suspended some arms exports to Israel over concerns about potential violations of international humanitarian law, joining several other nations that have taken similar actions in the wake of the war in Gaza.
Speaking in Paris, Saturday, Macron said that while both the US and France had called for a ceasefire in Lebanon, he added: “I regret that Prime Minister Netanyahu has made another choice, has taken this responsibility, in particular, for ground operations on Lebanese soil.”
Netanyahu, in a video statement Saturday after Macron’s remarks, criticized the French president and other leaders who “call for an arms embargo on Israel.”
“Israel will win with or without their support, but their shame will continue long after the war is won,” he said.
In response to Netanyahu, Macron’s office said France remains a “steadfast friend of Israel,” describing Netanyahu’s reaction as “excessive and detached from the friendship between France and Israel,” according to Le Monde as reported in the Quds News Network.
