Emmanuel Macron is stepping up efforts to support Lebanon as he seeks to demonstrate that France can be a relevant broker in the Middle East, and not just follow the lead of the US, the region’s most influential foreign power.
The French president on Thursday hosted about 70 senior foreign officials and Lebanese leaders at a conference to rally humanitarian aid for Lebanon and to try to inject momentum into efforts to end the war as Israel steps up its offensive against Hizbollah.
“There needs to be a ceasefire in Lebanon,” Macron said as he opened the event. “More damage, more victims, more strikes will not enable the end of terrorism or ensure security for everyone.”
Macron has been engaged in long-shot diplomacy to convince Israel and Hizbollah, which is backed by Iran, to step back from the brink and prevent a wider war in the region. He met US President Joe Biden and leaders of Germany and the UK in Berlin last week, and has spoken with Iranian officials, Arab leaders and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, with whom relations are tense.
Macron and his predecessors have historically devoted diplomatic attention to Lebanon, France’s one-time protectorate, and the country of about 5mn people remains a priority, even as French influence has waned from Africa to the Middle East.
The Israel-Hizbollah war has created a fresh opening for Paris to try to reassert sway in Lebanon. Macron is looking to leverage France’s historical ties with Beirut and use his ability to speak to Hizbollah and its patron Iran — something the US does not do directly.
French officials admit the chances of making progress on securing a ceasefire in Lebanon at the conference are slim, and privately acknowledge the US is the only power with significant leverage over Israel.
But they consider it is worth trying to cajole European and Arab allies to support their efforts on the diplomatic and humanitarian fronts.
“It’s important that we bring concrete answers to these problems [in Lebanon],” said an Élysée official. “That is why we want to advance rapidly to a ceasefire and then a political solution that involves all parties.”
The US and France have at times taken divergent views on how to respond to the escalating crisis, triggered by Hamas’s October 7 2023 attack on Israel.
While France joined other nations in saying Israel had a right to defend itself after the assault by Palestinian militant group Hamas killed 1,200 people and took 250 hostage, Macron was the first leader of a major western power to call for an immediate ceasefire last November as the casualties in Gaza mounted.
In September, France joined the US in pushing for a 21-day ceasefire between Hizbollah and Israel, but that effort failed after Israel assassinated the Lebanese militant group’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, and expanded its campaign.
Washington then said it supported Israel’s goals to degrade Hizbollah, while frustrated French officials continued to call for a ceasefire.
Many Lebanese have since come to view France as a more honest broker than the US, which they believe has given Israel the nod to increase its offensive against Hizbollah.
Lebanon’s Prime Minister Najib Mikati thanked France for its steadfastness, and said financial support would be needed for rebuilding and strengthening the cash-strapped army, which is not a party to the conflict but is deemed a critical, stabilising player in any resolution.
“The storm we are currently witnessing is unlike any other, because it carries the seeds of total destruction,” he said.
Since September, Israel’s offensive has killed more than 1,500 people in Lebanon and forced more than 1.2mn — about a quarter of the population — to flee their homes as Israeli bombing hit beyond Hizbollah strongholds.
Macron infuriated Netanyahu days before the October 7 anniversary with a call “to stop delivering weapons to carry out the fighting in Gaza”.
Because France exports only small quantities of arms components to Israel, the comments were interpreted by some as a message to the US, which supports Israel with billions of dollars in arms.
Netanyahu responded by saying: “What a disgrace.”
The Israeli-Hizbollah conflict erupted after the Iran-backed force began firing at northern Israel shortly after Hamas’s October 2023 attack, in what it said was solidarity, forcing 60,000 Israelis to flee.
Lebanon is an emotive issue in France because of the two countries’ shared history and a large Lebanese diaspora in France. The issue is politically sensitive for Macron because Paris is also a traditional Israeli ally, as well as being home to the largest Jewish population in Europe, and the largest Muslim one.
Thursday’s conference raised $800mn for humanitarian aid, roughly double the amount for which the UN had asked to avert the “humanitarian catastrophe” in Lebanon. A further $200mn will go to help strengthen the Lebanese Armed Forces.
The US is expected to send a lower-level delegation to Paris. Secretary of state Antony Blinken is on a tour of the Middle East.
Before the war erupted, Lebanon was mired in a deep political and economic crisis, and conditions have grown more acute since the Israeli attacks began.
The country faces shortages of basic goods to feed and house the more than 250,000 displaced people in government shelters, Lebanese officials said.
This is not the first time Macron has thrown himself — mostly unsuccessfully — into the cause of helping Lebanon. He rushed to Beirut to a hero’s welcome in 2020 after a massive explosion at the city’s port, and promised aid for rebuilding while also calling out Lebanon’s dysfunctional political class.
Three aid conferences for Lebanon were convened. Emissaries were sent to canvas the various political factions on political solutions, but the effort yielded few results.
Rym Momtaz, an analyst at Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said Macron deserved credit for trying. France and European countries “have leverage in Lebanon that they do not have in Gaza” because they supply a large contingent of soldiers to the UN peacekeeping mission in the buffer zone between Lebanon and Israel, she added.
Emile Hokayem at the International Institute for Strategic Studies said Macron “recognises that no other western country would be ready to expend the kind of needed political capital, military resources, economic support to stabilise the country if it collapses totally”.
“So if France doesn’t get involved now to set the parameters of a resolution, it may have to do so later in worse conditions on its own,” Hokayem said. “For Macron but also France, Lebanon is too close to home.”
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