Netanyahu opposes ceasefire deal that would not halt Hezbollah from rearming

By Steven Scheer

JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday he told French President Emmanuel Macron that he would not agree to a ceasefire deal that failed to stop Hezbollah rearming and regrouping.

Macron has called for a ceasefire between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah as well as an end to arms exports used in the Gaza Strip and Lebanon.

“The Prime Minister told President Macron that he opposes a unilateral ceasefire, which would not change the security situation in Lebanon and would return the country to its previous state,” a statement from his office said.

“He emphasized that Israel is operating against the Hezbollah terrorist organization to prevent it from threatening Israel’s citizens on the northern border and to enable them to return to their homes safely.”

On Monday, France rejected demands made by Netanyahu for a U.N. peacekeeping mission, known as UNIFIL, to pull back from its position in Lebanon, while France has summoned Israel’s ambassador over an incident where Israeli troops opened fire at three positions held by U.N. peace keepers in southern Lebanon.

Netanyahu, it said, was taken aback at President Macron’s intention to host a conference in Paris on the issue of Lebanon, with participants such as South Africa and Algeria, “which are working to deny Israel its fundamental right of self-defense and, in effect, reject its very right to exist”.

In a message to Macron, Netanyahu’s office also said in a separate statement that the State of Israel was established through “the War of Independence with the blood of our heroic fighters, many of whom were Holocaust survivors, including from the Vichy regime in France.” It added that in recent decades, the UN has approved hundreds of antisemitic resolutions against Israel.

(Reporting by Steven Scheer; Editing by David Gregorio)