Lebanon could collapse and slide into civil war, French Defense Minister Sebastien Lecornu said on Monday. The Middle Eastern country, which was administered by France for some of the 20th century, has become a battleground between Israel and armed group Hezbollah in recent weeks.
In an interview with LCI news channel, Lecornu said that a ceasefire in Lebanon was a “necessity for our collective security.”
Israel and Hezbollah have sporadically exchanged fire since the former launched a military operation in Gaza in response to a deadly incursion by Hamas on October 7 last year. Israel escalated its campaign against Hezbollah in September, launching Operation Northern Arrows to attack the group in Southern Lebanon.
One million people have been forced to flee their homes in Lebanon in search of safety, according to the UN Refugee Agency. The Lebanese Health Ministry reported that nearly 2,500 people had been killed by Israeli attacks on the country as of Saturday.
”Our position right now is primarily driven by the fear... of an imminent civil war in Lebanon,” Lecornu said. “…You can see that Lebanon could completely collapse even further than it already has,” he added.
Earlier this month, French President Emmanuel Macron called on the US and EU to “stop delivering arms” to Israel, stressing the need for a “political solution” to the crisis in the Middle East and warning that Lebanon could turn into “a new Gaza.”
France will host an international conference on Lebanon on Thursday in Paris. According to the French Foreign Ministry, the aim of the conference is “to rally the international community” to provide the Lebanese people with emergency relief, and to find ways of “supporting the country’s institutions,” especially its armed forces. Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati has indicated that he intends to request “security assistance” relating to “everything concerning the army and internal security forces” at the conference, according to AFP.
Hezbollah is a Lebanese Shia Islamist political party and militant group. Its political wing holds seats in the Lebanese Parliament and in the government. Its military wing is thought to be stronger than the Lebanese Army.
The Israeli Foreign Ministry and the IDF claim that they “eliminated” nearly all of Hezbollah’s senior military leaders in recent airstrikes. The group’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, was also killed in an airstrike in Beirut late last month.
Lebanon came under French control beginning in 1920, and it formally proclaimed independence in November 1943. However, it only became fully independent after French troops completed their withdrawal from the country in August 1946.