00:00Joining me on set, our senior reporter, James André. Hello to you, James. Within the past half
00:05hour, we're getting some statements from Jean-Noël Barrow, the French foreign minister
00:08who left Lebanon, is in Israel. He says he sees, or France rather, sees no obvious short-term end
00:14to the war in the Middle East. So what would be a successful visit for Barrow? What's he looking
00:20to achieve on this trip? Well, I think what he's really looking to achieve, I mean, France definitely
00:25does not want to see a major military operation in southern Lebanon. They don't want to see
00:30Israel, you know, reoccupy the south of Lebanon, as, you know, they have done in the past. If you look
00:35in your history books, you'll see that in 1978, there was an operation called Operation Litani,
00:41during which, well, the Israelis advanced into southern Lebanon to uproot PLO operatives who
00:46are indeed wreaking havoc on the northern border of the country. You know, this basically led to
00:53the creation of Hezbollah. This was, you know, it was occupied also between 1982 and then 1985.
01:00And then, again, the Israelis stayed roughly till, you know, 2000. This prompted, you know,
01:04UN resolutions. Long story short, indeed, there has been, you know, Israeli occupation of these
01:13areas, you know, from 1978 to pretty much the 2000s, and they were pushed out. But the fact of the
01:20matter is, the French do not want to see this happen again. So what they're pointing to, because
01:24it is correct, Israel and Lebanon are technically at war ever since the state of Israel, you know,
01:31was created, and they don't speak to each other. Joseph Owen, the Lebanese president, has indeed told
01:36Jean-Noel Barrault that he is willing to have meaningful discussions with the Israelis, that he is ready
01:43to disarm Hezbollah, that he is ready to do a lot. He's even talking about potentially asking the
01:48Israelis for some logistical assistance to the Lebanese army in order to dislodge the armed
01:55troops of Hezbollah in the southern part of the region. This, of course, is absolutely unheard of.
02:02It's historic. And actually, Jean-Noel Barrault said that. He said this is a historic opportunity for
02:07both countries to come to the table and talk. What France is saying is saying, A, it's historic. B,
02:11we are willing to offer the stage for this discussion in Paris, basically putting both
02:17actors, and especially Israel, in front of their responsibility, saying, right, this is it. You
02:23have an opportunity to talk to Lebanon. Are you going to seize that? Or else are you indeed going
02:28to carry on with this military operation that France does not see as a good idea or a good move?
02:35This is very much what, you know, his message is with this visit.
02:39And how likely is all of this to work?
02:42Well, it's going to depend very heavily on what the Israelis decide to do. The problem is,
02:46if you listen to what Benjamin Netanyahu said yesterday in this press conference,
02:50he very clearly stated that basically he considers that the Lebanese government is weak, that as long
02:56as the powerful backers of Hezbollah, and that, of course, is Iran, has not been, you know,
03:02as the regime, Iranian regime hasn't fallen, and that indeed, they are still have this proxy
03:08relationship to Iran, while he considers that there is no discussion to be had. And he considers
03:13that indeed, the Lebanese government has not done his job, that the Lebanese army has not
03:18disarmed Hezbollah. And this was indeed not what was agreed on with the previous ceasefire. Still,
03:24of course, if you know the situation in Lebanon, it's obviously extremely difficult to disarm Hezbollah.
03:30It's true that the Lebanese army probably has not, doesn't have the means to go into southern
03:34Lebanon and disarm Hezbollah. Southern Lebanon, I visited a few times for France 24, is indeed a
03:40stronghold, was a stronghold. Of course, there's been extensive damage. But you've got to see that
03:45you have millions of people who live there, a lot of whom actually support Hezbollah. And,
03:51you know, it's a very, very difficult move to think, right, you're going to uproot Hezbollah. It's
03:55very, very hard to do. Now, the question is, can they have talks? Can this deescalate? Will the
04:00Israelis not go into southern Lebanon? The fact of the matter is, with the current government,
04:05you have, you know, a certain amount of hawks who will see this as an opportunity to move into
04:09southern Lebanon. So the big question mark is, does Israel, does the Israeli government want to
04:16carry on with this operation? Or are they willing to sit down at the table and indeed stop the
04:22conflict? And that's a big question mark. Benjamin Netanyahu has clearly said yesterday that basically
04:26for him, as long as the Iranian regime is in power, he sees no opportunity. We'll have to see
04:32what happens after this French intervention.
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