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Israel Yet to Respond to French Lebanon Proposals

FILE PHOTO: Razor wire lies near an abandoned house, amid ongoing cross-border hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, near Israel's border with Lebanon in northern Israel March 19, 2024. REUTERS/Carlos Garcia Rawlins/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: Razor wire lies near an abandoned house, amid ongoing cross-border hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, near Israel's border with Lebanon in northern Israel March 19, 2024. REUTERS/Carlos Garcia Rawlins/File Photo
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Israel Yet to Respond to French Lebanon Proposals

FILE PHOTO: Razor wire lies near an abandoned house, amid ongoing cross-border hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, near Israel's border with Lebanon in northern Israel March 19, 2024. REUTERS/Carlos Garcia Rawlins/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: Razor wire lies near an abandoned house, amid ongoing cross-border hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, near Israel's border with Lebanon in northern Israel March 19, 2024. REUTERS/Carlos Garcia Rawlins/File Photo

Israel has not given a response to France on Paris' proposals to reduce tensions between Israel and Lebanon's Iran-backed Hezbollah, France's foreign ministry spokesperson said on Thursday.

Israel and Hezbollah have been engaged in escalating daily cross-border strikes over the past months - in parallel with the war in Gaza - and their increasing range and sophistication has raised fears of a wider regional conflict.

France has historical ties with Lebanon and has proposed written proposals to both sides that would see Hezbollah's elite unit pull back 10 km (6 miles) from the Israeli border, while Israel would halt strikes in southern Lebanon, Reuters reported.

Foreign Minister Stephane Sejourne went to both Lebanon and Israel in April to push France's efforts, and Israel's foreign minister was in Paris earlier this month. Lebanon's foreign minister was in Paris for talks on Wednesday.

"We have had a relatively positive response from the Lebanese, but I think we have not had any return from Israel at this point," Christophe Lemoine told reporters in a daily briefing.

The written proposal also looks at long-term border issues and had been discussed with partners including the United States, which has its own efforts to ease tensions and exerts the most influence on Israel.

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France, US Push at UN for Stronger Lebanese Army

The base of the United Nations Interim Forces in Lebanon (UNIFIL) in Ebel El Saqi Marjayoun District, southern Lebanon, 10 October 2024. EPA/STRINGER
The base of the United Nations Interim Forces in Lebanon (UNIFIL) in Ebel El Saqi Marjayoun District, southern Lebanon, 10 October 2024. EPA/STRINGER
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France, US Push at UN for Stronger Lebanese Army

The base of the United Nations Interim Forces in Lebanon (UNIFIL) in Ebel El Saqi Marjayoun District, southern Lebanon, 10 October 2024. EPA/STRINGER
The base of the United Nations Interim Forces in Lebanon (UNIFIL) in Ebel El Saqi Marjayoun District, southern Lebanon, 10 October 2024. EPA/STRINGER

Strengthening Lebanon's army will be crucial to implementing a key United Nations Security Council resolution that aims to keep peace on the country's border with Israel, the United States and France said on Thursday.
Deputy US Ambassador Robert Wood told a meeting of the 15-member Security Council that the international community must focus its efforts on strengthening Lebanese state institutions, Reuters reported.
"The solution to this crisis is not a weaker Lebanon. It's a strong and truly sovereign Lebanon, protected by a legitimate security force, embodied in the Lebanese Armed Forces," he said.
A UN peacekeeping mission -known as UNIFIL- is mandated by resolution 1701, adopted in 2006, to help the Lebanese army keep its southern border area with Israel free of weapons or armed personnel other than those of the Lebanese state. That has sparked friction with the heavily armed, Iran-backed Hezbollah.
A year ago Hezbollah began firing at Israel in support of Palestinian militant group Hamas at the start of the Gaza war.
The conflict has escalated in recent weeks as Israel carried out air strikes and launched a ground incursion in Lebanon's south.
French UN Ambassador Nicolas de Riviere said an immediate ceasefire was needed and that a proposal for a 21-day truce -put forward by France and the US last month- still stands. Wood said the US was working toward a diplomatic solution, but made no mention of a ceasefire.
Lebanon's acting UN Ambassador Hadi Hachem told the council that "only diplomatic solutions and the implementation of international resolutions, the commitment to international law and international humanitarian law is the means to end this war and this aggression."
'DO THE JOB'
Israel's UN Ambassador Danny Danon told the council that resolution 1701 must be enforced, along with resolution 1559, which was adopted in 2004, and "calls for the disbanding and disarmament of all Lebanese and non-Lebanese militias."
"We are fulfilling our obligations to ensure this, and the council must support us in our efforts," he said.
De Riviere told the council that one of the goals of a conference that France plans to hold on Lebanon on Oct. 24 was to guarantee Lebanon's sovereignty.
"We want heightened support for Lebanese institutions, in particular, the Lebanese Armed Forces," he said, later telling reporters: "We need the Lebanese Armed Forces to be deployed to the south and do the job ... What we need to do is to make sure that the Lebanese Armed Forces are properly equipped and trained."
UN peacekeeping chief Jean-Pierre Lacroix said that UNIFIL was ready to support all efforts towards a diplomatic solution.
"UNIFIL is mandated to support the implementation of resolution 1701, but we must insist that it is for the parties themselves to implement the provisions of this resolution," he told the Security Council.
The resolution bans all parties from crossing the Blue Line - a UN-mapped line separating Lebanon from Israel and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights - by ground or air. UN officials have for years reported violations by both sides.