On August 9, five days after the devastating explosion in the port of Beirut, a hastily organized first meeting brought together the international community and made it possible to release 250 million euros in emergency aid. On Wednesday 2 December, the President of the French Republic, Emmanuel Macron, and the UN Secretary General, Antonio Guterres, are due to bring together the international community again around a videoconference of “Support for the Lebanese population”.
Heads of state, international organizations, multilateral donors, NGOs and representatives of Lebanese civil society were invited to this meeting, piloted from the Elysee Palace from 6.30 p.m. Elysium.
This videoconference “Aims to take stock of the aid provided by the international community and its distribution methods since the conference on August 9, to take stock of new needs and to work to respond to them in the context of the crisis what Lebanon knows ”, according to the presidency.
Emmanuel Macron maintained this new conference although the Lebanese political class did not keep its commitments to form a new government to launch structural reforms demanded by the international community in exchange for its long-term support.
A serious economic crisis
In recent months, Lebanon has continued to sink into the economic crisis, a “Deliberate depression”, according to the World Bank, which in a damning report released Tuesday denounced leaders’ inability to agree on “Effective political action”.
Lebanon’s gross domestic product (GDP) is expected to decline by 19.2% this year after a 6.7% contraction in 2019, and debt is expected to represent 194% of GDP next year, according to the institution. In addition to a historic depreciation of its currency and hyperinflation, the country is still without a government more than three months after the resignation of Prime Minister Hassan Diab.
After the port disaster, President Macron went to Beirut twice, on August 6 and then on 1er September, when he announced that he had obtained a commitment from the local political forces to form a government within two weeks. This promise was not followed up. On October 22, former prime minister Saad Hariri was appointed to form the government, but his efforts have still not borne fruit due to strong internal divisions.
