French President Emmanuel Macron has further strained tense relations with Israel with a comment referring to the creation of the Israeli state, a verbal jab that was rapidly denounced by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as distorting history.
Macron has sought to take a more uncompromising stance on the conflicts in the Middle East after Israel launched an offensive against targets of the Shiite militant group Hezbollah in Lebanon, a former French protectorate.
The French leader said last week that stopping the export of weapons used by Israel in Lebanon and in its war against the Palestinian militant group Hamas in the Gaza Strip was the only way to stop the two conflicts.
France, which is home to Europe's largest Jewish population, has repeatedly urged a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and Lebanon, but has also increasingly criticised Israel over the heavy civilian toll in the conflicts.
Paris has also denounced Israeli fire against the 10,000 peacekeepers of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) in southern Lebanon, which includes a French contingent of around 700 troops.
In a new sign of the tensions between the countries, organisers of the major Euronaval defence show outside Paris next month said that following a decision of the French government, no Israeli stands or exhibits would be allowed at the salon.
His comments during the closed-door meeting at the Elysee Palace were quoted by two participants who spoke to AFP and asked not to be named.
"Therefore this is not the time to disregard the decisions of the UN," he added. UN Security Council Resolution 1701 states that only the Lebanese army and UNIFIL should be deployed in southern Lebanon.
But Macron's comment on Israel's creation had also caused concern within the Jewish community in France.
Yonathan Arfi, president of the Representative Council of French Jewish Institutions (CRIF), an umbrella group, said the remarks "if confirmed" constituted a "both a historical and political error".
He said such comments ignored the "century-old history of Zionism", the movement that aimed to build a Jewish homeland.
"At a time when anti-Semitism feeds on anti-Zionism, these remarks dangerously strengthen the camp of those who contest the legitimacy of Israel's right to exist," he wrote on X.
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