Israel’s president campaigns in France against Hezbollah
On his last European tour stop, Israeli President Reuven Rivlin met in Paris with French President Emmanuel Macron, campaigning against Hezbollah’s entrenchment in Lebanon and against the Iranian nuclear threat.
PARIS — President Reuven Rivlin met today with French President Emmanuel Macron at the Elysee Palace. Macron greeted Rivlin warmly, noting that their friendship has been forged in mutual visits over the past few years. The two men had last met a year ago when Macron visited Israel, and also the year before when Rivlin arrived in France on a state visit.
Paris was the third and last stop of the Israeli president in a three-day European tour that also included Germany and Austria. But the French stopover was different. In Germany and Austria, Rivlin focused on the common battle against anti-Semitism, attending memorial ceremonies for Jews who perished in the Holocaust. He also focused on Jerusalem’s campaign against the Iranian nuclear threat and Jerusalem’s campaign against the recent decision by the International Criminal Court’s prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, to launch a probe against Israel.
All those issues also came up in his meeting with Macron, but the major issue was certainly that of Lebanon and Hezbollah.
Speaking at a joint press conference, Rivlin said, “We will not agree for an Iranian entrenchment in Lebanon through Hezbollah. We have no territorial dispute or any war with the Lebanese people. We want to be good neighbors. We hope that our friends, including our friends here in France, will continue demanding the Lebanese government take responsibility for Hezbollah’s terror actions committed on its territory and from its territory.”
