Trump, Macron Agree on Need to Confront ‘Hezbollah,’ Iran

US President Donald Trump with Emmanuel Macron at a summit in Sicily in May. (Reuters)
US President Donald Trump with Emmanuel Macron at a summit in Sicily in May. (Reuters)
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Trump, Macron Agree on Need to Confront ‘Hezbollah,’ Iran

US President Donald Trump with Emmanuel Macron at a summit in Sicily in May. (Reuters)
US President Donald Trump with Emmanuel Macron at a summit in Sicily in May. (Reuters)

US President Donald Trump and French President Emmanuel Macron agreed on the need to confront Iran and Lebanon's “Hezbollah’s” destabilizing activities in the region, announced the White House.

It said in a statement that the two leaders held a telephone conversation on the situation in Lebanon and Syria.

They stressed the need to work with allies to confront “Hezbollah” and Iran, it added.

On Saturday, the French presidency said it is essential to protect Lebanon from "negative" foreign influences because the country needs a "strong state."

A high official in Macron's office said that France aims to see Lebanon "regain its stability."

The official did not name any specific foreign countries interfering in Lebanon's internal affairs, but said Lebanon should be protected from the "dangers that regional crises can pose to it."

The official said France supports Lebanon's policy of "disassociating" itself from regional crises.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity in accordance with French presidential policy, was speaking after Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri met Macron at the French presidential palace.



WHO Sends Over 1 Mln Polio Vaccines to Gaza to Protect Children 

Displaced Palestinians, who fled their houses due to Israeli strikes, look out from a window as they take shelter, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, July 24, 2024. (Reuters)
Displaced Palestinians, who fled their houses due to Israeli strikes, look out from a window as they take shelter, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, July 24, 2024. (Reuters)
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WHO Sends Over 1 Mln Polio Vaccines to Gaza to Protect Children 

Displaced Palestinians, who fled their houses due to Israeli strikes, look out from a window as they take shelter, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, July 24, 2024. (Reuters)
Displaced Palestinians, who fled their houses due to Israeli strikes, look out from a window as they take shelter, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, July 24, 2024. (Reuters)

The World Health Organization is sending more than one million polio vaccines to Gaza to be administered over the coming weeks to prevent children being infected after the virus was detected in sewage samples, its chief said on Friday.

"While no cases of polio have been recorded yet, without immediate action, it is just a matter of time before it reaches the thousands of children who have been left unprotected," Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in an opinion piece in Britain's The Guardian newspaper.

He wrote that children under five were most at risk from the viral disease, and especially infants under two since normal vaccination campaigns have been disrupted by more than nine months of conflict.

Poliomyelitis, which is spread mainly through the fecal-oral route, is a highly infectious virus that can invade the nervous system and cause paralysis. Cases of polio have declined by 99% worldwide since 1988 thanks to mass vaccination campaigns and efforts continue to eradicate it completely.

Israel's military said on Sunday it would start offering the polio vaccine to soldiers serving in the Gaza Strip after remnants of the virus were found in test samples in the enclave.

Besides polio, the UN reported last week a widespread increase in cases of Hepatitis A, dysentery and gastroenteritis as sanitary conditions deteriorate in Gaza, with sewage spilling into the streets near some camps for displaced people.