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French nearly fired at Israelis
 French troops serving in Lebanon have been only seconds away from firing on Israeli aircraft, the French defence minister says. Michele Alliot-Marie told parliament the jets dived towards UN positions in October and were perceived as a threat. "Two seconds later there would have been a shot against the aircraft which were directly menacing our forces," the defence minister said.France has previously complained about Israel violating Lebanese air space. Ms Alliot-Marie last month called the intrusions "extremely dangerous". She raised her concerns with UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan and Jean-Marie Guehenno, the French head of the UN peacekeeping operations. The head of France's troops in Lebanon even suggested their rules of engagement might need to be changed so that they could reply with force to Israel's air violations. Ms Alliot-Marie said of the October incident that a "catastrophe" was avoided only thanks "to the judiciousness of our troops". The foreign minister said France would issue a caution to Israel. sidebar: "It is a miracle that nothing serious happened, because there could have been a response on the part of French troops." Philippe Douste-Blazy French foreign minister I'd pay to see that! Posted by: Nimble Spemble 2006-11-09 |
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