Israel-Lebanon tensions: French army minister seeks to reaffirm 'commitment to stability'
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00:00 I think first and foremost the clear message is to keep Lebanon out of this conflict and
00:06 out of this arena.
00:08 So yesterday in particular, on Wednesday, the French minister, the French army minister
00:13 met with the caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati.
00:17 Not a lot of news of what went around during that closed meeting, but sources clarify or
00:25 point that the main message is to try to keep Lebanon out of this conflict.
00:30 And perhaps the biggest step that would mark this visit is the fact that the French army
00:39 minister will be visiting the border between southern Lebanon and northern Israel sometime
00:46 today in the next few hours.
00:49 This is a border that has been witnessing clashes over the past three weeks now.
00:55 Even the UNIFIL base where 700 French soldiers are stationed in southern Lebanon was recently
01:02 also subjected to a number of Israeli attacks during the retaliation against Hezbollah's
01:08 operations.
01:09 So perhaps this is the most important part, is the fact that he's going to that part of
01:13 the border to say that we need this part of the border to be stable.