Netanyahu hits out at Macron over call for halt to arms exports to Israel

A call by Emmanuel Macron for a halt in arms supplies to Israel for use in Gaza has been met with an angry rebuttal from the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu.

The French president’s comments were directed mainly at the US and were part of continuing French efforts to revive its call for a ceasefire in Lebanon.

France provides few arms to Israel but is keen to strengthen its longstanding influence in Lebanon by showing it wants the US to put some genuine pressure on Israel to accept a ceasefire. Washington appeared to mount little diplomatic resistance when Israel – after sending mixed signals – rejected a US-French plan for a 21 day ceasefire in Lebanon announced at the UN in New York nearly a fortnight ago.

In an interview recorded on Monday, but broadcast on Saturday, Macron told France Inter radio: “I think that today, the priority is that we return to a political solution, that we stop supplying weapons to lead the fighting in Gaza.”

“France is not supplying them,” he immediately clarified, indirectly turning the spotlight on the US, Israel’s main arms supplier. He also warned about “a resentment that is being born, a hatred that is being fuelled by this” . Lebanon could not be turned into another Gaza, he added.

Repeating his call on Sunday, Macron’s office said he favoured a halt to arms exports for use in Gaza because a ceasefire is needed to stop the mounting violence and “clear the way to the political solutions needed for the security of Israel and the whole Middle East”.

His comments brought a swift response from Netanyahu. “As Israel fights the forces of barbarism led by Iran, all civilised countries should be standing firmly by Israel’s side,” he said in a statement. “Yet, President Macron and other western leaders are now calling for arms embargoes against Israel. Shame on them.”

Macron also announced he was convening an international conference on aid to Lebanon and the establishment of Lebanese government armed troops on the border with Israel.

The Israeli attacks on Lebanon are designed to destroy the Iranian-backed Hezbollah group that has been firing rockets into Israel in support of Hamas, which mounted the attack on Israel from Gaza on 7 October 2023.

Macron’s remarks, welcomed by the Lebanese, Qatari and Egyptian governments as well as the Palestinian Authority, may reflect French concern that some officials in the White House appeared to be willing to be relaxed to the point of welcoming the Israeli rejection of the French-US plan for a 21-day ceasefire. Few US officials have condemned Israel for escalating the conflict.

The headline row about arms sales comes amid diplomatic efforts to end a two-year deadlock in Lebanon about the election of a president. With Hezbollah having sustained heavy losses to its leadership from Israeli strikes, there is pressure on the group’s political wing to let the election go ahead and for the military wing to accept a peace deal decoupled from a ceasefire in Gaza. Hezbollah’s stated position until recently has been no elections preceding a ceasefire in Lebanon, and no ceasefire in Lebanon without a ceasefire in Gaza.

Since the end of the term of the former president Michel Aoun in 2022, Lebanon has been in political deadlock with its 128 strong factionalised parliament unable to secure the required constitutional majority for any candidate.

The US is said to be in favour of exploiting Hezbollah’s weakness to install as president the army commander-in-chief, Gen Joseph Aoun. It is unlikely Tehran would be willing to back such a move..