Middle East: Macron calls for stopping arms deliveries to Israel used in Gaza

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French President Emmanuel Macron spoke out on Saturday in favor of stopping arms deliveries to Israel that are used in the conflict in Gaza. “I think that today the priority is that we return to a political solution, that we stop delivering weapons to carry out the fighting in Gaza,” he declared during a special program on France Inter radio dedicated to the French-speaking world.

“France does not deliver any,” he added during this interview recorded on October 1 and broadcast two days before the first anniversary of the massacres committed by Hamas in Israel, the starting points for Israeli reprisals and a murderous war in Gaza.

No ceasefire in Gaza

US President Joe Biden has so far refused to use arms against Israel, apart from suspending a delivery of bombs in May. The United Kingdom, for its part, announced in September the suspension of around thirty arms export licenses to Israel out of a total of 350, after an examination concluding that there was “a risk” that they would be used in violation of the international humanitarian law in the conflict between Israel and Hamas in Gaza which follows the unprecedented attack by the Palestinian Islamist movement on Israeli soil, on October 7, 2023.

The French president deplored that the lines were not moving in Gaza, despite all the diplomatic efforts made to obtain a ceasefire, particularly with Israel. “I think we are not being heard. I said it again to Prime Minister (Benjamin) Netanyahu and I think it is a mistake, including for the security of Israel tomorrow,” stressed Emmanuel Macron.

“We see it clearly in our public opinions, we see it in an even more terrible way in the public opinions of the region, it is basically a resentment which is being born, a hatred which is nourished by this”, said he added.

A divided French political class

This position was rather well received on the left, like the boss of the socialist party Olivier Faure who expressed his relief on the social network X: “Finally and so much the better if France can speak with one voice” .

“Yes, we must stop delivering weapons to Israel as we have been saying for months,” also reacted the coordinator of La France insoumise Manuel Bompard, calling however to “get away from ineffective sentences” because “only actions count” and further calling for “sanctions against Netanyahu’s government.”

The head of the environmentalist deputies Cyrielle Chatelain also considered that France must go further and “stop all arms deliveries to Israel” whose army “commits war crimes”.

Conversely, the spokesperson for the National Rally Julien Odoul denounced an “irresponsible and criminal” change of direction, recalling that after the attacks of October 7 the head of state “wanted to set up a major international military alliance against Hamas terrorists” while “a year later, while the State of Israel is attacked from all sides, Macron wants to disarm it.”

Furthermore, the President of the Republic affirmed that the “priority is to avoid escalation” in Lebanon, after the launch of the Israeli operation against the pro-Iranian Islamist movement Hezbollah. “The Lebanese people cannot in turn be sacrificed and Lebanon cannot become a new Gaza,” he insisted.



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