Frances President is facing renewed criticism for his lack of support for President Donald Trumps war against Iran and demands to include Lebanon in the current ceasefire as historic talks between Israel and Lebanon are set to begin Tuesday.
The historic meeting brokered by President Trump between Lebanon, a former French mandate, and Israel will take place at the ambassador level as hopes for an agreement evolve Ââ most noticeably without French involvement. Secretary of State Marco Rubio is expected to host both nations’ ambassadors.
The Jerusalem Post reported that Israels government requested that France be excluded from the talks. An Israeli official told the paper that “Frances conduct over the past year â including initiatives aimed at limiting Israels ability to fight in Iran, and a complete lack of willingness to take concrete steps to help Lebanon disarm Hezbollah â has led Israel to view France as an unfair mediator.”
On Monday, Hezbollah chief Naim âQassem on Monday âcalled on the to âcancel the âTuesday meeting in Washington, while â describing the talks as pointless. In âa televised âspeech, Qassem said the âarmed â group will continue to confront Israeli attacks on âLebanon.
Hezbollah violated a ceasefire to enter the war on its patron, Irans side, in March when it after the U.S.-Israel joint attack on the Islamic Republic began, still Macron has demanded Israel stop attacking Hezbollah’s terror infrastructure in Lebanon.
Israeli Brig. General (Res.) Yosef Kuperwasser told Fox News Digital that Macron was “working against the best interests of the Lebanese state and government. This is a very problematic direction.” He accused Macron of “taking the side of Hezbollah and normalizing Hezbollah because he is focused on “narrow interests.”
The former head of research for the Israel Defense Forces Military Intelligence Directorate, Kuperwasser, added that the “Americans want us to engage with the Lebanese along with the military [in Lebanon]. Our expectations are very similar. We want to see Lebanon do something about Hezbollah, something real, not just issue statements and pledges. We believe we have helped them by weakening Hezbollah militarily since they decided to launch missiles on March 2. If there is a breakthrough, Lebanon has a lot to gain,” but said it has to “disarm Hezbollah.”
The Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not immediately respond to a Fox News Digital request for comment.
Macron has faced accusations over the years that he has normalized Hezbollah. His government, in contrast to Germany, the U.S., Canada, the Netherlands, Japan, Austria and many other Western and non-Westen countries, refuses to designate Hezbollahs entire organization a terrorist entity. France has classified Hezbollahs “military wing” a terrorist organization but declined to ban its “political wing.” Hezbollah considers itself a unified movement without branches.
The French politician François-Xavier Bellamy, who is a member of the European Parliament for the Republicans Party, said last week on French television that “.” Macron sparked outrage in 2020 when he reportedly held a private conversation with a top elected Hezbollah official, according to the Paris-based daily Le Figaro.
Edy Cohen, an Israeli security expert on Hezbollah, who was born in Lebanon, told Fox News Digital, “France is forced not to come out against Hezbollah in order to legitimize its involvement in Lebanon.”
A French diplomat told the Times of Israel that “what we are hoping for is not a ticket to the meeting, but that Israel stops its offensive on Lebanon.”
When asked if France would pressure Lebanon to recognize Israel as a state, Pascal Confavreux, a spokesman for Frances Foreign Ministry, told “Fox News Sunday</a
