Israeli Minister of Foreign Affairs Gideon Sa'ar met on Thursday with French Minister of Foreign Affairs Jean-Noël Barrot. The two met one-on-one and also with their teams. In a press conference at the Israeli Embassy, Sa'ar described the meeting as "good" and "effective" and noted that he and his counterpart discussed Iran, Lebanon, Syria, Gaza, and the hostages in Gaza. "Iran is a dangerous state with an extremist regime that works intensively against regional stability, exporting the Islamist revolution and spreading terrorism in the region. The most extremist regime in the world shouldn't possess the most dangerous weapon in the world. This objective to prevent Iran from achieving a nuclear weapon is a common objective of France and Israel," Minister Sa'ar stated in the press conference. Regarding the war in Gaza, the Israeli Foreign Minister claimed, "Hamas is pushing to renew the war by refusing to release our hostages. We still have 59 hostages held in the Gaza Strip. Israel will not give up on any of its kidnapped citizens and will not agree to return to the reality of pre-October 7th, where we had a threat to our security and the security of our citizens from Gaza." Sa'ar revealed that during the meeting, he "made it clear to my French colleague - we are ready to end the war tomorrow, and the way is very simple: hostages back, Hamas out. We are still giving a chance to negotiations to extend the ceasefire and release our hostages on the basis of Witkoff's proposal, but it is not open-ended." Regarding Lebanon, he noted: "France and Israel are both interested in the stability of Lebanon, the continuation of the ceasefire, and the release of Lebanon from Iranian occupation. Israel has a superior commitment to safeguarding its security and the security of our citizens. All our activities are meant to serve this goal. We shouldn't allow Hezbollah to recover and rearm, and we will not let it happen. Inside Lebanon, there is cooperation between Iran, Hezbollah, and Hamas, and we will not allow terror activities from there against Israel and our civilians. We will not allow to come back to the reality of October 6th on any of Israel's borders." Minister Sa'ar concluded, "France is a friendly country, and I'm saying that even though, from time to time, we can have disputes. I have a continuous and ongoing dialogue with the French Foreign Minister, and we exchange views. I invited him today to visit Israel, and I believe he will do that soon. I am looking forward to continuing our dialogue for the benefit of our two nations."
