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France calls on Hezbollah to stay out of Israel-Gaza conflict

France on Saturday urged the Iranian-backed Hezbollah militia to stay out of the conflict between Israel and Hamas, expressing concern at the situation on the Lebanon-Israel border.

Published: 15 October 2023 08:47 CEST

France calls on Hezbollah to stay out of Israel-Gaza conflict

French President Emmanuel Macron during a televised address to the nation on the topic of conflict between Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas. Photo: Ludovic MARIN/AFP.

Paris also called for reporters covering the Israel-Hamas war to be protected after one journalist was killed and six others wounded in firing along the Lebanese border on Friday.

Hezbollah and Lebanon must “exercise restraint to avoid opening a second front in the region”, of which “the first victim will be Lebanon”, the French presidency said in a statement Saturday. “No pretext should be given for Lebanon to slide once again into war”, it was insisted, “especially since Lebanon is extremely weakened by the absence of functional authorities” at its head for many months.

Hezbollah and other Palestinian factions in Lebanon have exchanged cross-border fire with Israel since Hamas’s surprise October 7 attack on Israel ignited a war that has killed more than 1,300 people in Israel.

Palestinian gunmen also seized an estimated 150 hostages while Israel’s retaliatory air and artillery bombardment has killed more than 2,200 people in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip.

Two Lebanese civilians were killed in an Israeli bombing in Shebaa on Saturday, the village mayor Mohammad Harb told AFP. A Hezbollah fighter was also killed Saturday by Israeli fire, the group said.

Earlier, Hezbollah said it had targeted Israeli positions in the disputed border area.

‘Protect journalists’

Reuters journalist Issam Abdallah was killed and six others wounded in a strike attributed to Israel by Lebanese authorities. AFP photographer Christina Assi and AFP video journalist Dylan Collins were among those wounded.

The journalists believe they were hit by fire coming from the Israeli side of the border. Video shot by Collins just before the group of journalists was hit shows a flash of light coming from an Israeli position.

“We pay tribute to all those who work to defend free and independent information, and ask that they be protected,” France’s foreign ministry said in a statement, offering condolences to the Abdallah’s family and colleagues.

Agence France-Presse on Saturday urged both Israeli and Lebanese authorities to conduct a comprehensive investigation into the firing along their border that killed and wounded journalists.”It is crucial that every effort is made to ascertain how a group of journalists, clearly identified and duly accredited, could be targeted in this way,” said Fabrice Fries, AFP’s chairman and CEO.

Israel’s military said Saturday it was looking into the circumstances, while its spokesman Richard Hecht told a briefing: “We are very sorry for the journalist’s death.”

Warnings to Iran

The French presidency warned Saturday that Iran must refrain from adding to tensions in the region, while adding “it has no specific information” on Tehran’s involvement in the Islamist group’s offensive.

“But we know that Iranian weapons have gone to Gaza, that controlling the sea is difficult, and the links between Hezbollah and Iran,” it said.

French President Emmanuel Macron would be contacting his Iranian counterpart to convey this message, his office said.

Reaffirming Israel “has a right to defend itself”, Macron’s office also called for all measures to be taken to protect civilians while Israel bombards the Gaza Strip.

Paris also reaffirmed it has not been asked to provide military aid to Israel nor join in military operations.

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Azerbaijan vehemently rejects the accusation it bears responsibility for the riots that have led to the deaths of five people and rattled the Paris government.

But it is just the latest in a litany of tensions between Paris and Baku and not the first time France has accused Azerbaijan of being behind an alleged disinformation campaign.

The riots in New Caledonia, a French territory lying between Australia and Fiji, were sparked by moves to agree a new voting law that supporters of independence from France say discriminates against the indigenous Kanak population.

Paris points to the sudden emergence of Azerbaijani flags alongside Kanak symbols in the protests, while a group linked to the Baku authorities is openly backing separatists while condemning Paris.

“This isn’t a fantasy. It’s a reality,” interior minister Gérald Darmanin told television channel France 2 when asked if Azerbaijan, China and Russia were interfering in New Caledonia.

“I regret that some of the Caledonian pro-independence leaders have made a deal with Azerbaijan. It’s indisputable,” he alleged.

But he added: “Even if there are attempts at interference… France is sovereign on its own territory, and so much the better”.

“We completely reject the baseless accusations,” Azerbaijan’s foreign ministry spokesman Ayhan Hajizadeh said.

“We refute any connection between the leaders of the struggle for freedom in Caledonia and Azerbaijan.”

In images widely shared on social media, a reportage broadcast Wednesday on the French channel TF1 showed some pro-independence supporters wearing T-shirts adorned with the Azerbaijani flag.

Tensions between Paris and Baku have grown in the wake of the 2020 war and 2023 lightning offensive that Azerbaijan waged to regain control of its breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh region from ethnic Armenian separatists.

France is a traditional ally of Christian Armenia, Azerbaijan’s neighbour and historic rival, and is also home to a large Armenian diaspora.

Darmanin said Azerbaijan – led since 2003 by President Ilham Aliyev, who succeeded his father Heydar – was a “dictatorship”.

On Wednesday, the Paris government also banned social network TikTok from operating in New Caledonia.

Tiktok, whose parent company is Chinese, has been widely used by protesters. Critics fear it is being employed to spread disinformation coming from foreign countries.

Azerbaijan invited separatists from the French territories of Martinique, French Guiana, New Caledonia and French Polynesia to Baku for a conference in July 2023.

The meeting saw the creation of the “Baku Initiative Group”, whose stated aim is to support “French liberation and anti-colonialist movements”.

The group published a statement this week condemning the French parliament’s proposed change to New Caledonia’s constitution, which would allow outsiders who moved to the territory at least 10 years ago the right to vote in its elections.

Pro-independence forces say that would dilute the vote of Kanaks, who make up about 40 percent of the population.

“We stand in solidarity with our Kanak friends and support their fair struggle,” the Baku Initiative Group said.

Raphael Glucksmann, the lawmaker heading the list for the French Socialists in June’s European Parliament elections, told Public Senat television that Azerbaijan had made “attempts to interfere… for months”.

He said the underlying problem behind the unrest was a domestic dispute over election reform, not agitation fomented by “foreign actors”.

But he accused Azerbaijan of “seizing on internal problems.”

A French government source, who asked not to be named, said pro-Azerbaijani social media accounts had on Wednesday posted an edited montage purporting to show two white police officers with rifles aimed at dead Kanaks.

“It’s a pretty massive campaign, with around 4,000 posts generated by (these) accounts,” the source told AFP.

“They are reusing techniques already used during a previous smear campaign called Olympia.”

In November, France had already accused actors linked to Azerbaijan of carrying out a disinformation campaign aimed at damaging its reputation over its ability to host the Olympic Games in Paris. Baku also rejected these accusations.