PARIS: French President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday urged Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu to prevent a “conflagration” between Israel and Hezbollah militants in Lebanon, during a telephone call between the two leaders.
Macron “reiterated his serious concern over a deepening of tensions between Hezbollah and Israel... and underscored the absolute need to prevent a conflagration that would harm the interests of Lebanon as well as Israel,” the French presidency said in a statement.
He also insisted on the “urgency for all parties to move rapidly toward a diplomatic solution” to end the conflict sparked by the October 7 attack on Israel by Hamas militants in Gaza.
“The two leaders discussed the diplomatic efforts underway toward this,” the Elysee Palace said, ahead of a visit by the US envoy for the conflict, Amos Hochstein, to Paris on Wednesday.
Hochstein is scheduled to meet with Macron’s Lebanon envoy Jean-Yves Le Drian following visits to Israel and Lebanon in June to try to secure a ceasefire in Gaza.
Macron also called on Netanyahu to refrain from any “new operation” in Gaza near Rafah or Khan Yunis, “which would only aggravate the human toll and a humanitarian situation that is already catastrophic,” the Elysee said.
The Israeli army on Monday ordered the evacuation of most areas east of Khan Yunis and Rafah along the Egyptian border.
It did not explicitly announce a military operation, but such orders have typically preceded major offensives.
The announcement sparked a mass exodus of Palestinians from parts of southern Gaza on Tuesday as Israeli forces launched deadly strikes and clashed with militants.
Hamas’s October 7 attack on southern Israel that triggered the war resulted in the deaths of 1,195 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli figures.
The militants also seized 251 hostages, 116 of whom remain in Gaza including 42 the army says are dead.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive aimed at eradicating the Palestinian militants in Gaza has killed at least 37,925 people, also mostly civilians, according to data from the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory.
Macron and Netanyahu also discussed recent “developments” in Iran’s nuclear program, in particular reports of “the installation of new centrifuges” for enriching uranium.
In mid-June, the International Atomic Energy Agency said Tehran was further expanding its nuclear capabilities, with Western nations fearing the country is pursuing nuclear weapons following the US withdrawal from a 2015 deal to limit its atomic program.
The IAEA has said that Tehran has significantly ramped up its nuclear program and now has enough material to build several atomic bombs, though Iran says it is only for peaceful purposes.
“France, with its partners, remains fully committed to continuing to exert pressure on the Iranian government, which must respect its international obligations and fully cooperate with the IAEA,” Macron’s office said.
Macron urges Netanyahu to prevent Israel-Hezbollah ‘conflagration’
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Macron urges Netanyahu to prevent Israel-Hezbollah ‘conflagration’
- Macron “reiterated his serious concern over a deepening of tensions between Hezbollah and Israel
Yemen crisis ‘deeply volatile and unpredictable,’ UN special envoy tells Security Council
- Condemnation of renewed Houthi attacks on Red Sea shipping, the first for 7 months
- Humanitarian chief warns of 17m people going hungry in the country
NEW YORK CITY: The UN Security Council convened on Wednesday for a briefing on the escalating conflict and humanitarian crisis in Yemen, amid growing concerns about regional instability and the resumption of Houthi attacks on commercial shipping in the Red Sea.
The UN’s special envoy for Yemen, Hans Grundberg, described the present period as “deeply volatile and unpredictable,” while noting that there were some fragile hopes for a deescalation following the recent ceasefire agreement between Iran and Israel.
However, he cautioned that the Houthis continue to launch missile attacks against Israel, and recently targeted two commercial vessels in the Red Sea, resulting in civilian casualties and potential environmental damage. They were the first such assaults on international shipping in more than seven months.
“These attacks threaten freedom of navigation and risk dragging Yemen further into regional crises,” Grundberg warned, as he underscored the imperative need to safeguard civilian infrastructure and maintain stability in the country.
He emphasized that while the front lines in the Yemen conflict have largely held, military activity persists across several governorates, with troop movements suggesting an appetite for escalation among some factions.
Grundberg urged all parties involved in the conflict to demonstrate a genuine commitment to peace, including the release of all conflict-related detainees, a process that has been stalled for more than a year.
He also highlighted the dire economic situation in the country, describing it as the “most active front line” of the conflict, with currency devaluation and worsening food insecurity pushing millions toward famine.
In a call for practical cooperation, Grundberg praised recent developments such as the reopening of Al-Dhalea Road, which he said has eased movement and improved economic activity. He urged both sides to build on such progress to restore salaries, services and oil production.
The UN’s under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs, Tom Fletcher, briefed council members on the accelerating food-security crisis in the country.
“More than 17 million people are going hungry in Yemen, with numbers expected to rise to over 18 million by September,” he said, highlighting the threat to more than a million malnourished children under the age of 5.
Despite funding shortfalls, Fletcher said progress had been made in controlling cholera outbreaks and scaling up nutritional treatments, with more than 650,000 children receiving life-saving aid.
He also cited local-level agreements in Taiz governorate for the joint management of water supplies, and the reopening of a key road between Aden and Sanaa that is facilitating civilian and commercial transport for the first time in seven years.
However, he stressed the urgent need for increased funding of relief efforts, and called for the immediate release of detained UN workers and employees of nongovernmental organizations, echoing Grundberg’s demands.
The US Ambassador to the UN, Dorothy Shea, condemned the recent Houthi attacks on shipping in the Red Sea, including the sinking of the cargo vessel Magic Seas, describing them as “destabilizing” and a violation of freedom of navigation.
She urged the Security Council to renew calls for transparency regarding Houthi attacks on commercial vessels, and reaffirmed the US position in support of Israel’s right to self-defense against Houthi missile and drone attacks. She also condemned the continuing detention by the Houthis of UN and NGO workers and called for their immediate, unconditional release.
“The United States remains committed to depriving the Houthis of resources that sustain their terrorist actions,” she said, stressing that any assistance provided to the Houthis constituted a violation of US law as a result of the group’s designation by Washington as a Foreign Terrorist Organization.
In addition, Shea called for the termination of the UN Mission to Support the Hudaydah Agreement, which she described as outdated and ineffective. Established following the 2018 Stockholm Agreement between the Yemeni government and the Houthis, the role of the mission has been to monitor the ceasefire agreement in the port city of Hodeidah (the UN uses an alternative spelling of the city’s name), oversee the redeployment of forces, monitor ports to ensure they are used for civilian purposes, and facilitate coordination between stakeholders in Yemen, including UN agencies.
US envoy calls for change in Lebanese political culture in interview with LBCI Lebanon
- Thomas Barrack says Hezbollah is a Lebanese problem, up to Lebanese people to solve it
BEIRUT: Lebanon’s politicians have spent 60 years “denying, detouring and deflecting,” the US special envoy Tom Barrack said in an interview broadcast on Tuesday.
Barrack has been in Lebanon to talk with political leaders over Washington’s proposals to disarm the powerful militant group Hezbollah.
Asked whether the Lebanese politicians he has been dealing with were actually engaging with him or just buying time, the diplomat responded “both.”
“The Lebanese political culture is deny, detour and deflect,” Barrack said. “This is the way that it's been for 60 years, and this is the task we have in front of us. It has to change.”
After meeting President Joseph Aoun on Monday, he reacted positively to the Lebanese government’s response to a US plan to remove Hezbollah’s weapons.
In an interview with Lebanese broadcaster LBCI, Barrack said he believed the president, prime minister and the speaker of the house were being “candid, honest, and forthright” with him.
But he warned Lebanon’s politicians that the region is changing and if the politicians didn’t want to change as well “just tell us, and we'll not interfere.”
While he did not disclose the details of the US proposals, or the Lebanese response, Barrack said Lebanon’s leadership had to be willing to take a risk.
“We need results from these leaders,” he said.
Lebanon’s politicians have long been accused of corruption and putting self-interest first ahead of the good of the nation and the Lebanese people.
Public anger came to a head in 2019 with mass public protests against corruption and financial hardship.
The Lebanese economy spiraled into a financial crisis with the country defaulting on its debt and the currency collapsing.
Barrack, who is also Washington’s ambassador to Turkiye and special envoy for Syria, said the US was offering Lebanon a helping hand rather than trying to interfere in its politics.
“We’ve only said one thing, if you want us to help you, we're here to usher, we’re here to help. We’re here to protect to the extent that we can,” he said.
“But we’re not going to intervene in regime change. We’re not going to intervene in politics. And if you don’t want us, no problem, we’ll go home. That’s it.”
Barrack said Hezbollah, which is viewed as a terrorist organization by the US and is also a political party with 13 MPs in Lebanon “is a Lebanese problem, not a world problem.”
“We’ve already, from a political point of view, said it’s a terrorist organization. They mess with us anywhere, just as the president (Trump) has established on a military basis, they’re going to have a problem with us. How that gets solved within Lebanon is another issue … It’s up to the Lebanese people.”
Barrack said the disarmament of Hezbollah had always been based on a simple fact for President Donald Trump: “One nation, one people, one army.”
“If that's the case, if that’s what this political body chooses, then we will usher, will help, will influence, and will be that intermediary with all of the potential combatants or adversaries who are on your borders,” Barrack said.
The diplomat dismissed media speculation that the US had set timelines for its proposals, but said while Trump had been extremely proactive on Lebanon, he would not wait long for progress.
“Nobody is going to stick around doing this until next May,” he said. “I don’t think there’s ever been a president since Dwight Eisenhower who came out with such ferocity for Lebanon. On his own, he (Trump) has the courage, he has the dedication, he has the ability. What he doesn’t have is patience.
“If Lebanon wants to just keep kicking this can down the road, they can keep kicking the can down the road, but we’re not going to be here in May having this discussion.”
During the near hour-long, wide-ranging interview, Barrack, whose grandparents emigrated from Lebanon to the US, everybody across Lebanon’s many religions and sects was tired of war and discontent.
“If we have 19 different religions and 19 different communities and 19 different confessionals, there's one thing that’s above that, and that’s being Lebanese,” he said.
The Trump administration is keen to support Lebanon and Aoun, who became president in January, as the country struggles to emerge from years of economic hardship, political turmoil and regional unrest.
Hezbollah, which is backed by Iran, had become the most powerful military force in the country and a major political power, but was significantly weakened by an Israeli campaign against the group last year.
Its weapons arsenal has remained an ongoing thorn in the side of US-Lebanon relations.
Along with disarming Hezbollah, the US proposals presented to Lebanese officials by Barrack last month are thought to include economic reforms to help the country move forward.
UN chief outlines four options for embattled Palestinian relief agency UNRWA
- UNRWA is also dealing with a dire financial crisis, facing a $200-million deficit
- US was UNRWA’s biggest donor, but former President Joe Biden paused funding in January 2024
UNITED NATIONS: A review of the embattled United Nations Palestinian relief agency UNRWA, ordered by Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, has identified four possible ways forward for the organization that has lost US funding and been banned by Israel.
The proposals, seen by Reuters, are: inaction that could see the potential collapse of UNRWA; a reduction of services; the creation of an executive board to advise UNRWA; or maintaining UNRWA’s rights-based core while transferring services to host governments and the Palestinian Authority. While Guterres ordered the strategic assessment of UNRWA in April as part of his wider UN reform efforts, only the 193-member UN General Assembly can change UNRWA’s mandate.
UNRWA was established by the General Assembly in 1949 following the war surrounding the founding of Israel. It provides aid, health and education to millions of Palestinians in Gaza, the West Bank, Syria, Lebanon and Jordan.
“I believe it is imperative that Member States take action to protect the rights of Palestine refugees, the mandate of UNRWA and regional peace and security,” Guterres wrote in a letter dated on Monday and seen by Reuters submitting the UNRWA assessment to the General Assembly. The review comes after Israel adopted a law in October, which was enacted on January 30, that bans UNRWA’s operation on Israeli land — including East Jerusalem, which Israel annexed in a move not recognized internationally — and contact with Israeli authorities.
UNRWA is also dealing with a dire financial crisis, facing a $200-million deficit. The US was UNRWA’s biggest donor, but former President Joe Biden paused funding in January 2024 after Israel accused about a dozen UNRWA staff of taking part in the deadly October 7, 2023, attack by Palestinian militants Hamas that triggered the war in Gaza. The funding halt was then extended by the US Congress and President Donald Trump.
Four options
The UN has said nine UNRWA staff may have been involved in the Hamas attack and were fired. A Hamas commander in Lebanon — killed in September by Israel — was also found to have had an UNRWA job. The UN has vowed to investigate all accusations and repeatedly asked Israel for evidence, which it says has not been provided. Israel has long been critical of UNRWA, while UNRWA has said it has been the target of a “fierce disinformation campaign” to “portray the agency as a terrorist organization.” Guterres and the UN Security Council have described UNRWA as the backbone of the aid response in Gaza.
The first possible option outlined by the UNRWA strategic assessment was inaction and the potential collapse of the agency, noting that “this scenario would exacerbate humanitarian need, heighten social unrest, and deepen regional fragility” and “represent a significant abandonment of Palestine refugees by the international community.”
The second option was to reduce services by “aligning UNRWA’s operations with a reduced and more predictable level of funding through service cuts and transfer of some functions to other actors.”
The third option was to create an executive board to advise and support UNRWA’s commissioner-general, enhance accountability and take responsibility for securing multi-year funding and aligning UNRWA’s funding and services. The final potential option would see UNRWA maintain its functions as custodian of Palestine refugee rights, registration, and advocacy for refugee access to services, “while progressively shifting service provision to host governments and the Palestinian Authority, with strong international commitment to funding.”
Jordan resumes aid convoys to Palestinians in Gaza as conditions deteriorate
- Aid and food will be distributed in northern Gaza to ensure it reaches the most affected families
- Initiative involved the World Food Programme and the Jordanian armed forces
LONDON: Jordan on Wednesday resumed the dispatch of relief convoys to the besieged and war-torn Gaza Strip after months of an Israeli blockade that hindered humanitarian aid from reaching the Palestinian coastal enclave.
The Jordan Hashemite Charity Organization sent 40 trucks loaded with basic food supplies into Gaza as part of Amman’s humanitarian efforts to support Palestinians. The initiative was in collaboration with the World Food Programme and the Jordanian armed forces.
The aid and food will be distributed in northern Gaza to ensure it reaches the most affected families and supports Palestinians as humanitarian and living conditions continue to deteriorate due to Israeli attacks since late 2023.
Hussein Shibli, the secretary-general of JHCO, said the resumption of convoys highlights Jordan’s commitment under King Abdullah II to support Palestinians.
Jordan collaborated with the WFP to deliver a mobile bakery that supplied thousands of loaves of bread daily to residents in northern Gaza. Shibli said that cooperation with the WFP included projects for distributing meals and clean water, because infrastructure was severely damaged during Israeli bombings.
Jordan was among the first countries to conduct airlift missions in the early days of the war, delivering relief to Gaza. More than 56,000 Palestinians have reportedly been killed in Israeli strikes on Gaza, which have been described as genocide by human rights groups and several heads of state.
Palestinian Authority welcomes French president’s affirmation of recognizing statehood during UK parliament speech
- Emmanuel Macron said attacks in Gaza and West Bank put the prospect of Palestinian statehood at risk
- He called for an immediate ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, where Israel has been launching military campaigns since late 2023
LONDON: The Palestinian Authority welcomed on Wednesday the statements made by French President Emmanuel Macron during his state visit to the UK, in which he affirmed Paris’ position to recognize a Palestinian state as a way to ensure stability in the Middle East.
The Palestinian Authority’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates said that Macron is leading French efforts to revive the peace process with the Israeli government and contribute to implementing the two-state solution.
During his speech at the UK parliament on Tuesday, Macron said, “With Gaza in ruin and the West Bank being attacked on a daily basis, the perspective of a Palestinian state has never been put at risk as it is.
“And this is why this solution of the two states and the recognition of the State of Palestine is … the only way to build peace and stability for all in the whole region,” Macron said.
Organizers of a planned international conference sponsored by Saudi Arabia and France in mid-June had to postpone the event due to the Iranian-Israeli conflict that erupted. Several Labour lawmakers from the UK’s ruling party have called on Kier Starmer’s government to recognize a Palestinian state and to join France in this effort.
Macron also called for an immediate ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, where Israel has been launching military campaigns since late 2023 following Hamas’ cross-border raids on Israeli towns.
The Palestinian Authority urged European countries that have yet to recognize Palestine to support and follow France’s position, according to Wafa news agency.
