BEIRUT (AP) — French Foreign Minister Stéphane Séjourné arrived in Lebanon on Sunday as part of diplomatic efforts to reduce tensions on the border with Israel.
Séjourné is scheduled to meet with UN peacekeepers in southern Lebanon and with the head of parliament, the head of the army, the foreign minister and the country’s interim prime minister.
The Lebanese militia Hezbollah has been exchanging fire with the Israeli army almost daily for almost seven months, amid the war between Israel and the Palestinian militia Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
Israeli strikes have killed more than 350 people in Lebanon, mostly militants from Hezbollah or other groups, but also 50 civilians. Hezbollah has killed 10 civilians and 12 soldiers in Israel.
A French diplomatic source, on condition of anonymity, said the purpose of the visit is to express “France’s fears of a war in Lebanon,” and to deliver an amendment to an earlier French proposal for a diplomatic solution to the border conflict.
Western diplomats have put forward a series of proposals for an end to hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah. Most of the proposals involve Hezbollah moving its militants away from the border, deploying the Lebanese army there, and beginning negotiations for Israel to withdraw from disputed areas that Lebanon says Israel has been occupying since it withdrew from Lebanon. in 2000.
The previous French proposal called for Hezbollah to withdraw within 10 kilometers (6 miles) of the border.
Hezbollah has expressed a willingness to study the proposals, but has insisted that there will be no agreement until there is a ceasefire in Gaza.
