French PM Demands Israel End Lebanon Occupation
Addressing the French National Assembly, Lecornu denounced the fragile state of the Lebanon ceasefire and called out what he described as an untenable status quo.
"It is clear that not only must the ceasefire be respected, it is fragile, to say the least, even resembling a kind of 'ceasefire through fire,' which is unacceptable, but Israel must put an end to this war and to the illegal occupation it maintains on Lebanese territory," he said.
The French premier argued that Lebanon cannot be treated as a separate file from the broader regional confrontation with Iran — a position he said Paris had consistently pressed upon its allies.
"There will be no comprehensive solution to this war with Iran if the Lebanese issue is set aside," he said, pointing to Hezbollah's deep ties to Tehran as evidence that compartmentalizing the two conflicts was fundamentally flawed.
Lecornu then turned his sharpest criticism toward Netanyahu personally, arguing that Israel's current military trajectory is self-defeating.
"What the Israeli government is doing is endangering, in the medium and long term, the security of the State of Israel itself," he said, adding that sustained military operations were generating new security threats rather than neutralizing existing ones.
He reserved particular condemnation for what he characterized as a deliberate doctrine of endless conflict.
"We can clearly see that the strategy of permanent war that Prime Minister Netanyahu is currently deploying before our eyes is something that must not only be hindered and opposed, but also requires convincing regional partners and, of course, the US to move in this direction," he said.
France's engagement, Lecornu outlined, has been anchored by three priorities since hostilities erupted: safeguarding French nationals in the region, protecting freedom of navigation through the Strait of Hormuz, and standing by Lebanon — a country bound to France by deep historical ties.
The remarks land against a volatile backdrop. Iran has conditioned any permanent halt to the US-Israeli conflict on a cessation of fighting across all active fronts, Lebanon included, where a fresh Israeli offensive was launched in early March. Netanyahu recently ordered troops to expand operations and authorized strikes on targets in Beirut — a move that drew a fierce rebuke from US President Donald Trump, who reportedly confronted the Israeli premier directly in a heated phone call.
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