“We make the wish” that the medicines delivered by France and Qatar will be distributed “to each of the hostages” in the Gaza Strip, declared Monday January 22, while traveling in Israel, the Minister of Defense Sébastien Lecornu, in an interview given to franceinfo. The minister also returned to the risks of escalations in the region: “No one, neither in Tel Aviv, nor in Jerusalem, nor in Beirut, wants war”he said.
franceinfo: This is the second time you have come to Israel. Why this move?
Sébastien Lecornu: I returned at the request of the President of the Republic to continue to nourish our peace and security initiative which is based on many aspects. There is obviously a humanitarian aspect and you know that the French armed forces are widely mobilized to do this, in particular the Air and Space Force to transport medicines, humanitarian aid, freight in a manner global towards the Gaza Strip, as well as the National Navy and the army health service with the helicopter carrier Diksmuide.
The second priority, perhaps I should have even started there, is the release of hostages and missing persons. We still have three Franco-Israeli people who are concerned. I saw the families this Monday morning. It was an opportunity for me to take stock of progress, I’ll say no more.
“Messages have been sent again to the Israeli authorities on the need to obtain their release as quickly as possible. The same messages will be passed to different partners who are helping us in the discussions. I am thinking by definition of Qatar, to name only this example, but also to Egypt.”
Sébastien Lecornu, Minister of Defense
And then of course, issues linked to possible escalation in the region and this is perhaps also what precipitated my coming here a few days after a visit to Lebanon where, as you know, we have 700 French soldiers who are under United Nations mandate, with significant risks of conflagration at the border. We have known this since the start of this conflict and therefore we spare no effort publicly, sometimes discreetly, sometimes secretly, to convey a certain number of messages.
You mentioned the hostages. France sponsored a deal so medicines could be delivered to the hostages. Where are we?
It may seem hard to believe, but in fact, this is the first time that an initiative has been launched to deliver medicine to the hostages. This was done by the Quai d’Orsay crisis center in conjunction with Qatar, to enter into discussions and negotiations with Hamas, in conjunction with the Israeli authorities. Tailor-made work was done with the different families to identify the medications that each profile may need in view of their health and known pathologies. There are something like 45 hostages who are concerned precisely by this initiative.
It was the French Republic which sent part of these medicines to Qatar. Qatar transported it to Egypt. Egypt was obviously responsible for entrusting the Israeli authorities and then, obviously, the handover, if necessary, to Hamas, in discussion patterns that I do not know since it was the responsibility of the State of Israel and Qatar to ensure precisely this part of things. Now, we hope, we trust all parties that these medications will arrive safely, if I dare say, that is to say at the destination of each of these hostages.
Did you discuss this subject of hostages with the Israeli Prime Minister and then the Minister of Defense?
With each of my interlocutors, obviously including the various members of the war cabinet and the various representatives of the security cabinet. We have said it from the beginning, the release of the hostages is the absolute priority for us and we must not forget them. And we must not, over time, establish a routine in which we tell ourselves that ultimately their fate could take second place. In any case, this is not at all the objective of French diplomacy, quite the contrary. And we talked about this too with the various interlocutors. Here too, I will keep the conversations we had, not secret, but in any case for me and for the President of the Republic and, obviously, the French government.
“But it is clear that if Israel is to be able to defend itself, the safety of the hostages must always be guaranteed as much as possible. The humanitarian law of war must obviously be respected. These are the conditions that France has put on the table from the beginning that I am repeating here.”
Sébastien Lecornu, Minister of Defense
Did you talk about help from the armies? What more are we going to do? Is the Diksmuide will it be replaced?
He will now ask himself the question of the day after for the Diksmuide, because the amphibious helicopter carrier cannot remain docked indefinitely. However, there is no question of abandoning this status of health framework nation to allow civilians to be treated. I still remind you that on the Diksmuide, there are many women, many children, always with particularly serious pathologies. We are talking about amputation, we are talking about infection on first aid which sometimes has not always been carried out well in the Gaza Strip. It is often our caregivers, including French civilian caregivers, who are welcomed by military caregivers, who help save lives very directly.
The question will now also arise of continuing to be supported by a certain number of European partners. You have seen that in the meantime, Italy accompanied us with another smaller boat but which made it possible to put a sanitary offer at the dock. What the President of the Republic asked me to study in connection with the crisis center at the Quai d’Orsay, is to look at whether a hospital offer, always with military assistance, could be proposed to the Egypt, and therefore also, obviously, to Israel, not at the dock on a boat, but on land. I’m afraid all this could last. In any case, even if the operations were to achieve a ceasefire quickly, we can clearly see that in any case, there is significant care and follow-up care to be provided to most civilian populations. I cannot make an announcement now, but it is clear that we continue to discuss it with our European partners, still with Egypt and obviously with Israel.
You talked about Lebanon. What did you offer them? ?
We returned, first of all, to a key message: no one has an interest in war on either side. You know that our diplomacy is mobilizing, our soldiers are mobilizing with their various contacts on the ground. The services also, over which I have the honor of overseeing, are mobilizing and deep down, even if we have these thresholds which are worrying every day at the border, deep down, when we probe people’s minds, when hearts are searched, no one, neither in Tel Aviv, nor in Jerusalem, nor in Beirut, wants war. The real challenge for us is to ensure that this escalation, which may seem inevitable, does not happen and does not intervene. This raises the question at the bottom of something that already exists, that is to say resolution 1701, it is a United Nations resolution. France is one of the great military powers to bring a large contingent there. I said earlier that 700 soldiers served there.
Today, we can clearly see that the way in which the resolution is applied has deteriorated. The priority for us, members of the United Nations Security Council and for me, as Minister of the Armed Forces, is how this resolution can be implemented again. This is how we resume patrols, how to ensure that one side does not fire on the other side of the border and that the other side of the border does not retaliate with the risk of escalation. So that was a challenge because we started working with the French general staff. I have discussions with the Under-Secretary-General for the United Nations, with a number of other counterparts, including from other States. There are a few of us who are seeking to once again make this resolution enforceable. And so, by definition, it is based on a commitment from both parties, at least from both sides. Messages passed from one side, I was there at the beginning of the month and I would like to return to Lebanon fairly quickly and today I also needed to hear the conditions which precisely allow this resolution to work again.