Emmanuel Macron has appointed his former Minister of Foreign Affairs, Jean-Yves Le Drian, as “personal envoy for Lebanon”, in order to “ facilitate ” a solution ” consensual and effective to the serious political impasse that the country is going through, the French presidency announced on Wednesday June 7.
Jean-Yves Le Drian, aged 75 and presented as a man with solid experience in “ crisis management », « plans to go very soon to Lebanon “, added an adviser to the head of state. The president asked him to report quickly on the situation “.
Former Minister of Defense of Socialist President François Hollande (2012-2017) before joining Emmanuel Macron to become the head of his diplomacy (2017-2022), Mr. Le Drian had gained ground with the political world since the last presidential election of 2022.
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” The situation remains difficult in Lebanon », with the need to « get out of both the political crisis and the economic and financial difficulties “, Estimated the adviser to the president, recalling that Emmanuel Macron had personally “ very committed on this file.
According to Paris, there is an urgent need reach some form of consensus to allow the election of a president in Lebanon, a country without a head of state for more than seven months due to political deadlocks in this system with complex balances. And also to accelerate the implementation of necessary reforms “.
“Do not waste any opportunity”
The Lebanese Parliament is convened on June 14 to try again to elect a president. But it is deeply divided between the camp of the pro-Iranian Shiite movement Hezbollah, which does not have the necessary majority to impose its candidate, and its adversaries, in particular Christian parties, also unable so far to impose the name of their champion.
” Since Parliament is convened, this deadline must be useful », « don’t waste any opportunity “, Pleaded the Elysee, noting the emergence of two candidates, the Maronite Sleiman Frangié, close to Bashar Al-Assad, and Jihad Azour, former Minister of Finance and current director of the Middle East and Central Asia department of the Monetary Fund. international (IMF).
“ Our line remains the same “, namely that the way out of the crisis” requires more than an agreement on a name “, added the French presidency, which has been saying for months that it has no candidate for the succession of Michel Aoun, whose presidential mandate expired on October 31.
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(with AFP)