France has shared its reservations with Israel about its ground operations in southern Lebanon, its foreign minister has said.

Jean-Noel Barrot told reporters there was “no obvious short-term way out” ​of the conflict in the Middle East, but this was not a pretext ‌for inaction.

While concerns were expressed about the ground operation, he said ⁠the Lebanese army had to do everything possible to disarm ⁠Hezbollah. 

Earlier, Israel confirmed plans to occupy large areas of southern Lebanon to create ​a “defensive buffer” in its battle with the Iranian-backed militant group (see 13:04 post).

Pictures taken this afternoon showed Israeli tanks and soldiers gathering at the Lebanese border…

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