BEIRUT, Jan 17 (KUNA) -- Lebanese President Joseph Aoun on Friday held talks with his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron at Baabda Palace on the efforts to strengthen the truce with the Israeli occupation and the post-war rehabilitation. The summit talks dealt with the efforts to ensure pullout of the Israeli occupation forces from southern Lebanon, according to a statement from the Lebanese Presidential Office.
President Aoun appreciated France's roles in the five-nation oversight committee monitoring the cease-fire and the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), expressing hope that the Paris-based Total Energies would resume exploration for Lebanon's offshore gas an oil reserves.
He called for more efforts to ensure the release of Lebanese prisoners of war and rebuild the residential areas destroyed in the latest Israeli aggression.
Addressing his guest at a joint press conference, President Aoun said, "I hope you will bear witness to the entire world that the Lebanese people's trust in their country and state has been restored, and that the world's confidence in Lebanon must fully return because the true and genuine Lebanon has revived." "It is in the heart of every Lebanese, in his mind, conscience, daily language, living history and creative culture, a lot, a lot of France," NNA news agency quoted him as saying. On his part, President Macron renewed France's support to Lebanon and called on the other EU member states to help Lebanon recover, and restore security and stability particularly in the southern parts.
He noted that the truce deal, jointly mediated by France and the United States, on November 26, 2024, put an end to round of fierce violence between the Lebanese Hezbollah group and Israel which inflicted huge suffering for people on both sides of borders. (pickup previous) ayb.gb