Macron slams 'unacceptable' strike on Dahieh, says will talk to Trump and Netanyahu
French President Emmanuel Macron on Friday called an Israeli air strike on a southern suburb of Beirut "unacceptable," saying it was a "violation of the ceasefire" agreed in November.
Such attacks "play into the hands of Hezbollah," Macron told reporters after a meeting with President Joseph Aoun in Paris.
Israel fulfilled its threat to strike Beirut after two rockets were fired towards its territory, rattling an already fragile truce in Lebanon that had largely ended more than a year of hostilities with Hezbollah.
Macron said that he would discuss the attack with U.S. President Donald Trump "in the coming hours" and with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu within two days. Macron added that the U.S. can exert pressure on Israel.
"There is no activity that justifies such strikes," Macron said. "It is an absolute necessity that the framework that we defined, and that was agreed to by Lebanon and Israel, is duly respected. Today it was unilaterally not respected by Israel."
Israel had provided no information or evidence of any action that could justify the attack, Macron added.
Aoun, speaking alongside Macron, denounced "any odious attempts to pull Lebanon back into a storm of violence."
Source: Agence France Presse, Associated Press
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