Najib Mikati, president of the Lebanese Council of Ministers: “The priority is the implementation of Resolution 1701”
The president of the Lebanese Council of Ministers, Najib Mikati, called for a ceasefire with Israel, after a meeting with the head of French diplomacy, Jean-Noël Barrot, the first senior Western diplomat to visit Beirut since the intensification of Israeli attacks against Lebanon.
“The key to the solution is to end the Israeli aggression against Lebanon and return to the call launched by the United States and France with the support of the European Union and Arab and foreign countries for a ceasefire”according to a message published in X. “The priority is the implementation of resolution 1701” of the United Nations, which ended the 2006 war between Israel and Lebanese Hezbollah, he added.
Paris and Washington, along with Arab, Western and European countries, called last week for a “immediate twenty-one day ceasefire” between Israel and Hezbollah “Give diplomacy a chance”. An initiative ignored by Israel, which, on the contrary, increased its attacks and spectacularly eliminated Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah on Friday.
Emmanuel Macron declared his opposition to Lebanon “Becoming a new Gaza”evoking the number “absolutely shocking” civilian casualties. More than a thousand people have been killed in Lebanon, according to Lebanese authorities, since the start of the military escalation between Israel and Hezbollah in mid-September.
