Southern EU leaders want Lebanon’s army to reassert itself in south

The leaders of nine southern European Union countries have pledged support for Lebanon’s armed forces to reassert control over the country’s south in the hope of bringing peace to an area plagued by fierce fighting between Israel and the militant group Hezbollah.

In a joint declaration, the leaders of the MED9 group — Italy, Spain, France, Greece, Malta, Cyprus, Slovenia, Portugal and Croatia — said they would “continue advocating for further support to Lebanon and its people, including to the Lebanese Armed Forces which are called to play a critical stabilizing role.”

“The unfolding situation in the Middle East is gravely alarming,” the declaration said.

“In light of the reverberations of the Gaza conflict on the wider region, we express our extreme concern with the escalation of the military confrontation between Israel and Hezbollah.”

French President Emmanuel Macron told a news conference that the return of the Lebanese armed forces to South Lebanon and the restoration of Lebanese sovereignty “are essential to its peace and stability.”

“We have reiterated the need for a ceasefire, and this ceasefire is essential both in Gaza and in Lebanon. We need it now, for our hostages, for the civilian populations who are victims of the violence, and to avoid a regional contamination that is threatening the stability of the entire region and beyond,” he said. 

Macron didn’t specify what form that support would take, but said a conference in Paris on 24 October would aim to ramp up aid deliveries to Lebanon as humanitarian crisis looms while helping to bolster the country’s military and internal security forces.

Ahead of that conference, Macron and Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni said a meeting of G7 defence ministers would also look at ways of assisting Lebanon’s army to move into the south.

Escalating violence

Israel and Hezbollah have exchanged almost daily cross-border fire since the war in Gaza started last October. But recent weeks have seen that violence significantly ramp up.

Israel carried out increasingly heavy strikes into parts of Lebanon far from the southern border, including the capital Beirut, and at the end of September launched a ground offensive in the country.

It’s estimated there are 15,000 Israeli soldiers operating in Lebanon.

Hezbollah meanwhile has expanded its rocket fire to more populated areas deeper inside Israel, causing few casualties but disrupting daily life.

Those tit-for-tat strikes have displaced tens of thousands of people on both sides of the border.

The EU leaders’ declared support for Lebanon’s armed forces comes as US Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke with his Saudi, Qatari and French counterparts about how the election of a new Lebanese president might reduce tensions in the Middle East by getting Hezbollah to move its forces away from Israel’s northern border.

Meloni and Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez joined with Macron in condemning what the French president called Israel’s “deliberate targeting” of soldiers belonging to a UN peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon, UNIFIL.

ADVERTISEMENT

UN sources said that Israeli troops opened fire at three positions held by UN peacekeepers in southern Lebanon on Thursday.

France, Spain and Italy all contribute troops to UNIFIL.

“I can’t avoid going back and condemning what happened. It is not acceptable. It violates the provisions of UN Resolution 1701. The Italian government, as you know, has strongly protested to the Israeli authorities,” Meloni said.

Both Sánchez and his Slovenian counterpart Robert Golob backed Macron’s call for a suspension of weapons deliveries to Israel in what they see as an effective way to de-escalate the wars in Lebanon and Gaza.

ADVERTISEMENT

“We haven’t sold weapons to Israel since the beginning of this war,” Sánchez said.

“And the logic is simple. Without weapons there is no war.”

Irregular migration

Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides, who hosted the meeting, said the leaders also discussed irregular migration, which he reiterated needs to be tackled at source, namely the migrants’ countries of origin or the ones they transit through.

Christodoulides said he would raise with other EU leaders in Brussels ways of “creating those conditions” within Syria — in collaboration with the United Nations refugee agency and other international partners — that would allow the return of Syrian refugees to their country.

ADVERTISEMENT