It is a highly anticipated visit that Jean-Yves Le Drian must begin, Thursday, July 23, in Lebanon. Taking into account the economic cataclysm that befallen this country in the spring, where the lifestyle of the population collapsed in the space of a few weeks, the arrival of the French Minister of Foreign Affairs – the highest foreign official to make the trip to Beirut since the popular uprising last fall – could not go unnoticed. In the climate of absolute distress caused by the brutal depreciation of the currency, hyperinflation and cascading layoffs, the trip of the head of French diplomacy brings a timid clarification.
To each his own expectations. The Lebanese who attribute the crisis to the diplomatic isolation of their country, in particular to the unspoken boycott of the United States and the Gulf countries, opposed to the dominant role of the pro-Iranian movement Hezbollah, want gestures of solidarity. Those who explain it on the contrary by the carelessness of the leaders, unable to agree on the reforms requested for ages by the donors, await messages of firmness. Everyone is secretly hoping for a political initiative likely to get the country of the Cedars out of the deadly, almost existential impasse in which it is stuck.
Mr. Le Drian, like a good diplomat, will have words for everyone. In the tradition of friendship which binds France to Lebanon, he will specify the contours of aid to private French-speaking schools, pillar of the Lebanese education system, announced three weeks ago. These establishments, whether they are the lycées of the French Secular Mission or the schools of Christian congregations, are experiencing colossal financial difficulties, due to the drop in enrollments and therefore the fall in their income. Announcements will also be made in the humanitarian field, on the occasion of a visit to a social center managed by the Lebanese non-governmental organization (NGO) Amel, in the south of Beirut.
But with his political interlocutors – the president, Michel Aoun, the prime minister, Hassan Diab, and the head of parliament, Nabih Berri – the French minister will also show impatience, even irritation. It is because the head of government, in office since January, has not been more capable of implementing the measures demanded by the international community – establishment of regulatory mechanisms, passage of a law on the independence of the justice, strengthening of customs and border controls, cuts in public spending, etc. – than the previous executive, headed by Saad Hariri. Not so much for lack of will as for lack of support from the political and financial elite, reluctant to overhaul a system from which it has largely benefited.
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