Israel should “refrain” from sending in forces to take control of a zone in South Lebanon, France’s Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot said on Tuesday, warning that such a move would have “major humanitarian consequences” and “exacerbate the country’s already dire situation.”
Israel said earlier its military would take control of South Lebanon up to the Litani River, around 30 kilometres from the border. Controversial Israeli finance minister Bezalel Smotrich, in a Monday radio interview, went a step further, calling for an expansion of Israeli territory into Lebanon, with the Litani river as the new border.
Lebanon was pulled into the Middle East war when the Tehran-backed Hezbollah terrorist organisation began firing rockets into Israel on March 2 to avenge the killing of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
