Trudeau, Joly head to Francophonie as war tensions engulf Middle East

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly are expected to speak to representatives of Lebanon's government at the high-profile Francophonie summit, as the conflict in the Middle East threatens to overshadow the official agenda for this annual gathering of leaders from French-speaking states.

Trudeau and Joly are on their way to France this morning for the summit, which will take place over Friday and Saturday.

Lebanon is a member of the 88-member Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie. On Friday, an Israeli airstrike killed Hassan Nasrallah, leader of the Iran-backed militia group Hezbollah, in an attack on a suburb of the Lebanese capital Beirut.

Israeli air strikes in that region have also claimed the lives of more than 1,000 people, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry — including two Lebanese-Canadians.

On Tuesday, Israel launched a ground invasion in southern Lebanon, triggering fears of a larger war in the Middle East.

Trudeau took part in an early-morning call with other G7 leaders on Wednesday. He later told journalists all of the leaders on the call condemned Iran's missile attack on Israel earlier in the week and called it a «destabilizing action» by a terrorist regime that runs «the risk of a wider war.»

«We have to continued to do everything we can to call for peace and stability, which means calling for a ceasefire between Hezbollah and Israel, calling for a ceasefire in Gaza, and getting again back on track for a two-state solution where a peaceful, secure, stable Israeli state is living alongside a peaceful, secure stable Palestinian state,» Trudeau said.

«Israel has a right to defend itself following this unprecedented attack,» Joly said. «We need to make sure that