PARIS: French President Emmanuel Macron told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday to “avoid a vicious cycle of retaliation” in the Middle East, his office said, as fears of a regional war surge. Macron had earlier told his Iranian counterpart to “avoid a vicious cycle of retaliation that would endanger populations and regional stability”, and urged Netanyahu to adopt the same line of reasoning in a telephone call, the French presidency said in a statement.