The Israeli foreign minister says Tel Aviv will lift its siege on the Gaza Strip if France sends its colonial-era force, French Foreign Legion, to administer the coastal territory, Press TV reported.
Israel would end its blockade on the Strip if France would play a part by sending in the legendry Foreign Legion to keep order, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman told the Knesset (parliament) in occupied al-Quds (Jerusalem) on Monday, AFP reported.
"I have no problem in lifting the blockade tomorrow as long as there is a force to inspect everything coming into the Gaza Strip," Lieberman said.
The minister said he had introduced the idea during talks with French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe in June.
Lieberman's remarks were confirmed by another Israeli official, who had attended the Knesset meeting.
In a reference to France's pro-Palestinian peace activists, who had planned to break Gaza siege by reaching the territory in July, Israeli foreign minister chided Paris: "Don't send girls with olive branches."
The French Foreign Legion, established in 1831, was the unrivaled military service wing of the French empire during country's colonial adventures in the nineteenth and first half of the twentieth century.
Gaza has been blockaded since June 2007, a situation which has caused a decline in the standard of living, unprecedented levels of unemployment, and unrelenting poverty.