France warned Hezbollah not to go to war with Israel, French President Emmanuel Macron told Israeli President Isaac Herzog when the two men met in Jerusalem on Tuesday.
“We warned Hezbollah [and] passed very clear messages,” Macron said just hours after he arrived in a diplomatic effort to prevent the regionalization of the Gaza War that began on October 7.
Herzog said that Hezbollah and Iran were “playing with fire” on the country’s northern border in attempting to provoke a two-front war against Israel.
“If Hezbollah will drag us into war, it should be clear that Lebanon will pay the price,” Herzog said
“Lebanon can not be a sovereign member of the international community, its citizens carrying a Lebanese passport, but when it comes to Israel its citizens are not responsible.
“By international law we have the full right to defend ourselves,” Herzog said.
Iran, he clarified, is working to destabilize the region.
“We are not looking for a confrontation on our northern border or with anyone else. We are focused [in the south] on destroying Hamas infrastructure and bringing our citizens back home,” Herzog said.
The two men met in the aftermath of the October 7 Hamas infiltration into southern Israel in which over 1,400 civilians and soldiers were killed and another 222 were taken hostage.
Thirty French citizens were killed in that attack and another nine are missing.
Herzog told Macron that the “situation was complicated and fragile” and that Israel was demanding the full release of all the captives.
Separately, he told Macron, that he was worried by the rise of antisemitism around the world and in France.
Macron assured Herzog that Israel was not alone in its fight against terror.
“We stand shoulder to shoulder with you,” Macron said.
“I speak here on behalf of a country which experiences terrorist attacks,” Macron said.
“It is our duty to fight against these terror groups without any confusion and without enlarging the conflict,” he said.
Upon arrival, he tweeted that France was “bound to Israel through mourning.” He also met with bereaved families of the victims of the October 7 attack.
EN DIRECT | À Tel-Aviv, le Président @EmmanuelMacron rencontre le Président Isaac Herzog, Président de l’Etat d’Israël. https://t.co/024yCcIaW6
— Élysée (@Elysee) October 24, 2023
He is meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Minister Benny Gantz (National Union), and former prime minister (Yair Lapid) who heads the Yesh Atid Party.
Macron will also travel to Ramallah where he will meet with Palestinian Authority officials.
Macron arrived as Israel and the United States are working to prevent the Gaza War with the Iranian proxy group Hamas, now in its 18th day, from developing into a two-front war that would include the Iranian proxy group Hezbollah on Israel’s northern border.
Possibility of a two-front war
The Biden administration is also concerned that Iranian proxy attacks on Israel could lead to direct military confrontation between Washington and Iran.
At a Foreign Press Center briefing US National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby told reporters that Iranian proxy groups ‘like Hamas and Hizballah and these militia groups in Iraq and in Syria” have over the weekend attacked “some of our facilities and our troops as well as our diplomats.”
‘I can tell you that we are certainly not blind at all to what Iran is doing,” Kirby said.
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