Foreign Minister Cohen: France could play ‘significant role’ in avoiding war in Lebanon

Foreign Minister Eli Cohen says that France could play a key role in preventing potential all-out war between Israel and the Lebanon-based Hezbollah terror group.

“France could play a positive and significant role to prevent a war in Lebanon,” Cohen says at a joint media briefing with visiting French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna.

Israel has long said the Iran-backed Hezbollah terror group must be driven north of the Litani River.

UN Security Council Resolution 1701, which ended the Second Lebanon War in 2006, barred Hezbollah from maintaining a military presence south of the Litani, which is located some 30 kilometers (18 miles) north of the Israel-Lebanon border. Hezbollah has blatantly violated that resolution and regularly launches attacks on Israel from near the border.

Israel has warned it will no longer tolerate the presence of the terror group along the northern frontier, after some 3,000 Hamas terrorists stormed the border from the Gaza Strip on October 7.

Since that date, Hezbollah-led forces have attacked Israeli communities and military posts along the border on a near-daily basis.