A man walks amid the rubble of a building hit in an overnight Israeli air strike in Beirut, on Oct. 3.-/AFP/Getty Images
Canada’s Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly said Thursday that she’s planning to meet with counterparts from Lebanon and France at the Francophonie summit, where the shadow of a wider war in the Middle East is already looming large.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Joly landed in Paris late Thursday for the Francophonie as the crisis in the Middle East continued to escalate.
Canada and other G7 countries have called for a ceasefire again near the end of a week that has included a barrage of missiles from Iran into Israel, and the beginning of a ground war as Israeli troops moved into southern Lebanon.
The Israeli military signalled it may widen that ground operation Thursday, warning people to evacuate a city and other communities in southern Lebanon that are north of a UN-declared buffer zone.
The region is also bracing for Israeli retaliation following the Iranian ballistic missile attack.
Joly said she will be speaking to Lebanon’s information minister and her counterpart from France about the situation in Lebanon.
“Unfortunately, the foreign minister and the prime minister of Lebanon are not here for obvious reasons, because war is plaguing their country right now,” she said.
The Francophonie is also working on a broader statement about the Middle East, Joly said, noting Lebanon is a member state.
Almost a week ago Canada began helping its citizens in Lebanon find seats on available commercial aircraft leaving Beirut, and Joly said another 654 seats had been secured on three flights flying to Istanbul Thursday.
Around 900 seats are secured on commercial flights set to leave over the weekend, Joly said, and not all those seats had been filled.
“So please, as things are becoming more dangerous across Lebanon – including in Beirut, we saw that there was a strike recently – please, take that seat,” she said.
Trudeau said Wednesday the international community must do everything it can to help avoid a bigger regional war but recent developments have many fearing that is already happening.
A statement on Sept. 27 from Francophonie secretary-general Louise Mushikiwabo expressed the solidarity of the francophone family with the Lebanese people and called for all parties to seek a diplomatic solution to the conflict.
The ongoing crises in two of the Francophonie’s member nations – Haiti and Lebanon – are likely to dominate discussions at the summit.
In Haiti, a new report released Sept. 30 said nearly half the country’s population of more than 11 million people is experiencing crisis levels of hunger or worse as gang violence smothers life in the capital of Port-au-Prince and beyond.
Last week at the United Nations General Assembly, Trudeau urged global leaders to come together to build a serious and immediate plan to meet the humanitarian needs of Haitians.
The Francophonie summit, which happens every two years, will be held Thursday and Friday in Villers-Cotterets and Paris.
France is taking over the presidency of the Francophonie from Tunisia and says the summit’s theme will be to “create, innovate and do business in French.”
Leaders are expected to discuss ways to promote the French language, address geopolitical challenges, ensure the digital space reflects their linguistic and cultural diversity and increase economic ties between countries.
Canada will also have representation at the summit from Ontario, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Quebec.
Francophonie leaders are expected to make a decision on applications to join the international Francophonie body, including Nova Scotia’s application for observer status.
Joly said discussions at the summit will include ways to solve a shortage of French teachers around the world.
With files from The Associated Press.