In call, Macron urges restraint in Lebanon, while Herzog says Hezbollah must be dismantled

French President Emmanuel Macron urges Israel to avoid further escalation in Lebanon amid intensified fighting with Hezbollah, during a phone call with President Isaac Herzog, according to a Hebrew-language post on his X account.

Macron says he expressed France’s “full solidarity” with “the Israeli people in the face of the daily attacks by Iran and Hezbollah,” saying the attacks “must cease immediately,” before stressing the “urgency of preventing further escalation in Lebanon.”

“I am convinced that the resumption of direct talks between Israel and Lebanon is an opportunity that must be seized. France is working to promote this goal,” Macron says he told Herzog.

“In the Middle East, I emphasized the absolute necessity for the parties to the conflict to act to preserve civilian and energy infrastructure, on which the lives of millions of people depend, and to commit to a path of genuine renewal of dialogue,” the post reads. Macron also says he called on Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.

“The regional crisis must not cause us to forget the situation in Gaza, where the humanitarian situation is catastrophic,” Macron adds, also calling for an end to settler violence against Palestinian civilians in the West Bank.

According to a readout from Herzog’s office, Herzog told Macron that “a vision of peace with Lebanon is the right objective, but it requires undermining Hezbollah and dismantling its capabilities in a manner that will ensure the security of Israel’s citizens and communities, and stability in Lebanon.”

Herzog stressed that “the ongoing missile attacks from the Iranian regime and its terror proxy Hezbollah in Lebanon…demonstrate why the war must bring a major change as it pertains to this empire of evil.”