France’s Macron Urges Restraint in Lebanon after Wave of Explosions

French President Emmanuel Macron attends a ceremony commemorating the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the port city of Le Havre, France, 12 September 2024. (EPA)
French President Emmanuel Macron attends a ceremony commemorating the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the port city of Le Havre, France, 12 September 2024. (EPA)
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France’s Macron Urges Restraint in Lebanon after Wave of Explosions

French President Emmanuel Macron attends a ceremony commemorating the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the port city of Le Havre, France, 12 September 2024. (EPA)
French President Emmanuel Macron attends a ceremony commemorating the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the port city of Le Havre, France, 12 September 2024. (EPA)

French President Emmanuel Macron held phone calls with top political and military leaders from Lebanon, his office said on Thursday, urging restraint after a wave of explosions of pagers and radio devices.

Macron asked Lebanese leaders to pass on messages to local groups including Hezbollah to avoid further escalation, the Elysee said, amid fears of a wider war.  

Thousands of explosions in booby-trapped radios and pagers hit the Iran-backed group on Tuesday and Wednesday.

The attacks on Hezbollah's communications equipment killed 37 people and wounded around 3,000, raising fears that a full-blown war was imminent.

Israel has neither confirmed nor denied being behind the attacks, but multiple security sources have said they were carried out by its spy agency Mossad.

Spain's foreign ministry condemned the attacks as a violation of international humanitarian law that threatened the region's stability.

"We call for restraint on the part of all actors," the ministry said in a statement. "It's necessary to avoid a further escalation of violence and the risk of open war with unforeseeable consequences."

Spain's condemnation came hours after Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas met with Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez in Madrid.



Libya's Eastern Parliament Approves Transitional Justice Law in Unity Move, MPs Say

Members of Libyan legislatures known as the High Council of State, based in Tripoli in the country's west, and the House of Representatives, based in Benghazi in the east, meet for talks in Bouznika, Morocco, December 19, 2024. REUTERS/Ahmed Eljechtimi/File Photo
Members of Libyan legislatures known as the High Council of State, based in Tripoli in the country's west, and the House of Representatives, based in Benghazi in the east, meet for talks in Bouznika, Morocco, December 19, 2024. REUTERS/Ahmed Eljechtimi/File Photo
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Libya's Eastern Parliament Approves Transitional Justice Law in Unity Move, MPs Say

Members of Libyan legislatures known as the High Council of State, based in Tripoli in the country's west, and the House of Representatives, based in Benghazi in the east, meet for talks in Bouznika, Morocco, December 19, 2024. REUTERS/Ahmed Eljechtimi/File Photo
Members of Libyan legislatures known as the High Council of State, based in Tripoli in the country's west, and the House of Representatives, based in Benghazi in the east, meet for talks in Bouznika, Morocco, December 19, 2024. REUTERS/Ahmed Eljechtimi/File Photo

Libya's eastern-based parliament has approved a national reconciliation and transitional justice law, three lawmakers said, a measure aimed at reunifying the oil-producing country after over a decade of factional conflict.

The House of Representatives (HoR) spokesperson, Abdullah Belaihaq, said on the X platform that the legislation was passed on Tuesday by a majority of the session's attendees in Libya's largest second city Benghazi.

However, implementing the law could be challenging as Libya has been divided since a 2014 civil war that spawned two rival administrations vying for power in east and west following the NATO-backed uprising that toppled Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.

"I hope that it (the law) will be in effect all over the country and will not face any difficulty," House member Abdulmenam Alorafi told Reuters by phone on Wednesday.

The United Nations mission to Libya has repeatedly called for an inclusive, rights-based transitional justice and reconciliation process in the North African country.

A political process to end years of institutional division and outright warfare has been stalled since an election scheduled for December 2021 collapsed amid disputes over the eligibility of the main candidates.

In Tripoli, there is the Government of National Unity (GNU) under Prime Minister Abdulhamid al-Dbeibah that was installed through a UN-backed process in 2021, but the parliament no longer recognizes its legitimacy. Dbeibah has vowed not to cede power to a new government without national elections.

There are two competing legislative bodies - the HoR that was elected in 2014 as the national parliament with a four-year mandate to oversee a political transition, and the High Council of State in Tripoli formed as part of a 2015 political agreement and drawn from a parliament first elected in 2012.

The Tripoli-based Presidential Council, which came to power with GNU, has been working on a reconciliation project and holding "a comprehensive conference" with the support of the UN and African Union. But it has been unable to bring all rival groups together because of their continuing differences.