On the Lebanese file, Emmanuel Macron had promised in March to “Change approach”. The dramatic deterioration of the economic situation, marked by a poverty rate now exceeding 50% of the population, required, according to the French Head of State, to “Do everything to avoid collapse”. Faced with the inability of traditional parties to form a new government, replacing the cabinet of Hassan Diab, who resigned since the explosion of the port of Beirut in August 2020, it was important, in the eyes of the tenant of the Elysee Palace, to adapt the “Method”. Even if it means imposing “Sanctions”, had whispered, a few days earlier, a French diplomatic source.
Visiting Beirut on Thursday, May 6, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Jean-Yves Le Drian, tried to give substance to this new line. If he met the president, Michel Aoun, and the prime minister designate, Saad Hariri, leader of the Sunni camp, who has been scrambling for eight months on the composition of the future executive, as well as the president of the Parliament, Nabih Berri , these visits, qualified by his entourage as “Protocol”, did not exceed half an hour.
Contrary to custom, the head of the Quai d’Orsay refrained from meeting other community leaders, such as Walid Joumblatt, the leader of the Druze, Samir Geagea, boss of the Lebanese Forces (Christian right), and Gebran Bassil, the son-in-law of President Aoun, leader of the Free Patriotic Movement (Christian right). At the end of September, during a scathing press conference, Emmanuel Macron had castigated “Collective betrayal” of these confessional parties, which have monopolized power since the end of the civil war (1975-1990).
Open dialogue with the opposition
During the thirty-six hours he spent in Beirut, Jean-Yves Le Drian wanted to give priority to the forces embodying ” the future ” from Lebanon. The French foreign minister shared a iftar (fast breaking meal) with a group of women involved in humanitarian action. He also went to a private Christian school, as a sign of support for the Lebanese education sector, particularly affected by the crisis, and visited a community health center, funded by the French Development Agency.
Above all, Jean-Yves Le Drian, whose fourth trip to Lebanon in the space of a year, met for the first time an opposition delegation: representatives of a dozen parties and collectives from the “thawra” (“revolution”), the anti-system protest movement of autumn 2019.
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