French foreign minister to travel to Lebanon on Sunday evening: Ministry
France’s foreign minister will travel to Lebanon on Sunday, his ministry said, amid spiraling fears that the region could be headed toward an all-out war.
Jean-Noel Barrot is due to land in Lebanon on Sunday evening to “exchange with the local authorities and bring French support, especially humanitarian,” the foreign ministry said in a statement.
An official schedule called for Barrot on Sunday to hand over emergency health aid to Lebanon’s health minister before a meeting about the status of French nationals.
He was to meet Prime Minister Najib Mikati on Monday as well as armed forces chief Joseph Aoun, parliament speaker Nabih Berri and the UN’s Lebanon coordinator.
The trip comes as Israel continues a campaign of air strikes in Lebanon targeting Iran-backed group Hezbollah.
On Saturday Barrot telephoned with Mikati, saying Paris was calling for “an immediate halt to Israeli strikes in Lebanon” and was “opposed to any ground operation,” according to the foreign ministry.
France also “calls on other actors, notably Hezbollah and Iran, to abstain from any action that could lead to additional destabilization and regional conflagration,” it said on Saturday.
France’s government chief Michel Barnier on Saturday called the situation in Lebanon “extremely serious” and said he was “concerned for the safety” of French citizens there.
But the foreign ministry has so far stopped short of urging French nationals to leave Lebanon.
With a history as the colonial mandatory power in Lebanon and Syria and a large Lebanese diaspora on its soil, France takes a close interest in Beirut’s affairs.
In recent years Paris has pushed Lebanon’s factions to overcome the country’s political crisis — to little avail.
President Emmanuel Macron’s special Lebanon envoy and former defense minister Jean-Yves Le Drian visited last week, urging political forces to come together to elect a president after a long delay.
Le Drian has not spoken to the press about the visit.
