by John Irish
CAIRO (Reuters) -Stéphane Séjourné said on Wednesday that diplomatic work was still necessary to achieve a truce between Israel and Palestinian Hamas in the Gaza Strip, after being informed of the progress of the talks during an interview with his Egyptian counterpart in Cairo.
A sign of the intensification of diplomatic efforts with a view to a truce and the release of hostages held in Gaza, the French Minister of Foreign Affairs made an unannounced visit this Wednesday to Egypt, a mediating country with Qatar in indirect discussions between Israel and Hamas, while his American counterpart Antony Blinken meets in Jerusalem with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, with whom Stéphane Séjourné himself spoke on Tuesday.
Stéphane Séjourné and Antony Blinken also met several Arab ministers in Riyadh on Monday, while Israel still threatens to intervene militarily in Rafah, which it considers to be the last bastion of Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
“We came here to coordinate our efforts on the truce, on the messages that are given by France and our Arab partners in the region so that Israel can roll back this initiative and this offensive possibly in Rafah,” said the French minister. of Foreign Affairs after his meeting with his Egyptian counterpart Sameh Choukri.
Stéphane Séjourné refused to make any prediction regarding a possible truce. “The work continues,” he said.
He expressed the hope of a release, in the event of a truce, of the three Franco-Israeli dual nationals who are among the dozens of hostages still held in the Gaza Strip since their kidnapping during the Hamas attack in the south of ‘Israel on October 7.
France’s efforts are not limited to Gaza but also aim to avoid an open war between Israel and the Lebanese Hezbollah, who have exchanged rocket and missile fire since the outbreak of the war in Gaza.
Stéphane Séjourné’s tour in the region aims to highlight the French plan for a lull on the Israeli-Lebanese border, alongside a possible truce in Gaza, according to French diplomats.
(Reporting John Irish, French version Bertrand Boucey)
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