French President Emmanuel Macron, hosting an event attended by a Lebanese minister, has issued a warning that “occupation” does not bring security in a message seen as directed at Israel, according to AFP.

“No occupation, no form of colonisation — not here, not in the West Bank, nor anywhere else — is able to ensure the security of anybody,” Macron said as he opened an exhibition at the state-funded Institute of the Arab World in Paris.

He was speaking alongside Lebanon’s culture minister, Ghassan Salame.

Macron urged respect for international law, saying that “at a time that certain people want to have us believe that security can only be achieved by invading a scary neighbour, Lebanon reminds us of just one thing: the force of universalism”.