Macron says Israeli PM and U.S. can act to stop ground invasion of Lebanon

French President Emmanuel Macron has said that while he is working with Canada and other countries to stop a possible ground invasion of Lebanon, only the Israeli prime minister and the United States can prevent that from happening.

Macron made the remarks in a wide-ranging interview with CBC News and Radio-Canada Thursday in Ottawa before the French president’s bilateral meeting with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

The comments came a day after France, Canada, the United States, the EU, the U.K. and other countries issued a joint statement calling for an immediate 21-day ceasefire across the Lebanon-Israel border.

“We delivered yesterday, together, a paper. We had the agreement of all the Lebanese components,” Macron told CBC News chief political correspondent Rosemary Barton and Radio-Canada parliamentary bureau chief Louis Blouin.

“Hezbollah … expressed that they were ready for a ceasefire. Now everybody is waiting for [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu],” he added in the interview airing on Rosemary Barton Live on Sunday.

“I do believe that we still have some hours during which the prime minister can commit and give a chance for peace during this 21 days, and I do believe that the U.S. now has to increase the pressure on the prime minister of Israel to do so.”

Israel has launched hundreds of airstrikes against Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon in recent weeks, killing hundreds of people, including civilians. Strikes continued overnight and into Thursday. 

Landing in the U.S. to attend the UN General Assembly, Netanyahu told reporters the military will keep hitting Hezbollah with “full force and we will not stop until we achieve all our goals, first and foremost returning the residents of the north safely to their homes.”

Earlier Thursday, Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz said in a post on X “there will be no ceasefire in the north.”

“We will continue to fight against the Hezbollah terrorist organization with all our strength until victory and the safe return of the residents,” he said.

Hezbollah is an Iran-backed militia operating in southern Lebanon that has been listed as a terrorist entity by a number of countries, including Canada.

“I think Hezbollah is clearly the key question in Lebanon,” Macron said. “I think during the past few years, they played a very negative role in the political landscape and for the security of the south of Lebanon.”

Macron said his objective is to establish peace in Lebanon by working with the international community to help the country’s armed forces “restore its full sovereignty and to completely get rid of all these forces, militias and people in the south.”

Macron said an Israeli invasion of Lebanon would “be a huge mistake, a huge risk of escalation” that would make life unbearable for the people who live there.

Next to Trudeau, Macron is the longest-serving G7 leader.

Both leaders are facing similar challenges: global conflict in Ukraine and the Middle East, political unrest and the rise of populist politics.

You can watch the full interview on Rosemary Barton Live Sunday morning from 10 till noon ET on CBC News Network, and from 11 to noon local on CBC TV.