French President Emmanuel Macron called on Saturday for Israel to accept «direct talks» with the Lebanese government and various components of society, expressing his readiness to facilitate and host them in Paris. Macron stated that Israel must abandon any large-scale attack and stop its intensive airstrikes, at a time when hundreds of thousands of residents have already fled the shelling. He noted that on Friday he held talks with Lebanese President Joseph Aoun, Prime Minister Nawaf Salam, and Speaker of the Parliament Nabih Berri. «Everything must be done to prevent Lebanon from sliding into chaos. Hezbollah must immediately stop its escalatory course,» Macron wrote in an Arabic post on the social media platform X.
