French efforts to calm down conditions in Lebanon

During the last 48 hours, France has joined in diplomatic efforts to prevent the repetition of Israeli attacks against Lebanon. Despite the negative Israeli attitude towards these efforts, the French intervention seems fruitful and was met in Beirut, Damascus and Tehran with assertion of adherence to the April Understanding.

The meeting scheduled for the April Understanding Monitoring Committee was postponed from today until tomorrow in order to give more time for contacts made by France, although the committee awaits some 14 Lebanese complaints and 21 Israeli complaints.

While the operations of rebuilding bridges destroyed by the raids have been accelerated in an average of 12 hours per day, the visit of the director of the Middle East and South Africa department at the French Foreign Ministry to Beirut on Sunday, delegated by the French President Jacques Chirac, left great satisfaction in the Lebanese officials. In his meetings with Lebanese President Emile Lahoud and Prime Minister Salim al-Hoss, the French envoy expressed his country's sympathy with Lebanon and its readiness to help in rebuilding what had been destroyed by the recent Israeli raids.

In his statement, the French envoy asserted the importance of "getting out of exchanged reactions" in his attempt to halt the concept of "revenge" among the two sides.

For his part, al-Hoss discussed with the French envoy the possibility of cooperation between the French and Lebanese electricity establishments for rebuilding the two electricity stations in al-Jamhour and Bsalim.