Government leaders
Aoun asks French FM for help preventing security vacuum in south
President Joseph Aoun has met visiting French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot in Baabda, saying he would welcome any effort to prevent a security vacuum in the south if U.N. peacekeepers withdraw as planned at the end of the year. Barrot is in Beirut for a two-day visit to discuss "mechanisms for an international presence" in the south -- the scene of repeated conflicts between Israel and Hezbollah -- after the mandate of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) expires.
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