Emmanuel Macron’s trip to Lebanon, his first in more than four years, follows a 60-day ceasefire deal that aims to end the Israel-Hezbollah war.
French President Emmanuel Macron visited Beirut on Friday to meet with Lebanon’s newly elected leaders, as the nation attempts to recover from the effects a 14-month war between Israel and Hezbollah and a devastating economic crisis.
It’s Macron’s first visit in more than four years, and follows a 60-day ceasefire deal that aims to end the war. France helped broker the deal and a French officer is a member of the committee that is supervising the truce, which went into effect on 27 November.
He is meeting with Lebanon’s new President Joseph Aoun, whose election broke a political stalemate that had left the presidency vacant for over two years. That cleared the way for the nomination of a permanent prime minister, the prominent jurist and diplomat Nawaf Salam, with whom Macron will meet as well.
Lebanon’s government hopes the political breakthrough will boost international confidence and clear the way for the release funds needed for reconstruction after the Israel-Hezbollah war, which killed more than 4,000 and wounded over 16,000 in Lebanon. An international conference for Lebanon in Paris in October raised $1 billion in pledges for humanitarian aid and military support.
Lebanese caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati welcomed Macron, and said they discussed the need for continued support both “economically and in terms of reconstruction.”
Macron was also expected to head to the country’s south, where French troops are deployed part of a UN peacekeeping force along the border with Israel.
Promises of reform
The French leader has been a harsh critic of Lebanon’s political class, whom many blame for the decades of corruption and mismanagement that led in October 2019 to the country’s worst economic and financial crisis.
For years, Macron has pressed Lebanese officials to implement reforms to help the former French protectorate out of an economic crisis that the World Bank described as among the worst the world has witnessed in more than a century. Few steps have been taken by the country’s rulers since then.
Macron is scheduled to meet Salam and President Joseph Aoun. The prime minister-designate Aoun have promised to work on getting Lebanon out of its economic crisis and to impose state authority over parts of the country long controlled by Hezbollah.
“President Macron promised to keep support for the new government,” Mikati said after meeting the French leader at the airport. He added that Macron will meet early Friday with the US and French officers on the ceasefire monitoring committee and will later meet Lebanese officials.
Asked if France can guarantee that Israel will withdraw its troops from Lebanon, by the end of the 60-day truce, Mikati said this was not discussed, adding that the French side is following the matter with US officials.
The Israel-Hezbollah war has weakened Hezbollah, an Iran-backed militant group that dominated Lebanese politics for years. Hezbollah favoured other candidates for the presidency and the prime ministership and has criticized the choices of Aoun and Salam.
