French President Emmanuel Macron is organizing a conference on Lebanon this Thursday, October 24 in Paris, with the aim of mobilizing the international community and raising some 500 million euros to help people displaced by the conflict between Israel and the Hezbollah.
“This country, friend of France, is today on the brink of the abyss,” summarizes the head of French diplomacy Jean-Noël Barrot, in a message posted on “Acting is a duty and that is why France took this initiative,” he said.
In the presence of Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati, Lebanese Foreign Ministers Abdallah Bou Habib, German Annalena Baerbock, Canadian Mélanie Joly, and for the European Union Josep Borrell, this conference will bring together more than 70 participants including around fifteen organizations international. United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres will deliver a speech remotely.
Paralyzed for almost two years by a political crisis which plunged it into economic chaos, Lebanon has for a month been the scene of a war between the Lebanese Islamist movement, supported by Iran, and Israel. The clashes, which are taking place particularly in the south of the country on the border with Israel, have forced more than 800,000 people to move, according to the UN. There are even more than a million displaced people, according to the Lebanese authorities.
“May the ceasefire come as quickly as possible”
The conference will be divided into three parts: diplomatic, humanitarian and political. “We have put concrete proposals on the table so that the ceasefire can take place as quickly as possible,” recalled Jean-Noël Barrot, in reference to the Franco-American proposal for a temporary ceasefire. of 21 days to allow the conditions of a lasting agreement to be negotiated. France, like many Western countries, believes that a diplomatic outcome is “the only viable solution for Lebanon as for Israel”, where 60,000 people have also had to leave their homes.
But in the absence of the main protagonists – Israel and Iran were not invited and American Secretary of State Antony Blinken will not make the trip – diplomatic progress in Paris should be limited. Richard Verma, US Deputy Secretary of State, will support “the need to reach a diplomatic solution to allow the populations” of Lebanon and Israel to return home, his office said.
“Anything that does not lead to an immediate end to the destruction and killings would make this summit a failure,” said the director of the NGO Oxfam in Lebanon, Bachir Ayoub, this Wednesday. “The entire region is in turmoil and the only way to prevent this crisis from getting worse is to establish a permanent ceasefire,” he added.
The French president, who will speak at 10 a.m., will announce new financial support, the amount of which has not yet been revealed, but the objective of which would be to reach 500 million euros, while the UN had recently called for at least 400 million dollars (370 million euros).
France, a former mandatory power which has some 23,000 nationals in Lebanon, has already sent medicines and medical equipment and released 10 million euros to support the action of associations there. In 2021, during a previous international conference for Lebanon, Paris released 100 million euros.
“Preserve the sovereignty” of Lebanon
Third and final component, support for the armed forces of Lebanon “to preserve the unity, stability and sovereignty of the country”, explained Jean-Noël Barrot. This is one of the key elements as the Lebanese Prime Minister wishes to deploy the Lebanese Armed Forces more widely south of the Litani River, the area targeted by Israeli strikes to dislodge the Hezbollah militias. Different measures are envisaged such as the provision of equipment, training and above all funds to ensure their daily operation and recruit new soldiers.
But the challenge is above all to increase their effectiveness when a ceasefire agreement has been found to allow the full and complete application of resolution 1701. This, which recorded the end of the previous war between Israel and Hezbollah in 2006, stipulates that only peacekeepers and the Lebanese army must be deployed in southern Lebanon bordering Israel. For this to happen, it is necessary “for Hezbollah to cease all its attacks on Israel and for Israeli operations to cease”, we insist at the Elysée.
In addition to strengthening the Lebanese armed forces, Italy is pushing the idea of a United Nations Interim Force known as “UNIFIL 3”, “capable of facing the new situation”, a representative told AFP. Italian diplomatic source.
At least 1,552 people have been killed in Lebanon in one month, according to an AFP count based on official data. “Our common message to the Lebanese is the following: we do not look away, we do not leave them alone,” Annalena Baerbock said on Wednesday. A meeting of envoys from the “quintet”, the five countries cooperating on the Lebanese presidential crisis (France, United States, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Egypt) will also take place before the international conference around Jean-Yves Le Drian, envoy President’s staff.