France tries to increase its pressure against Lebanese personalities

French Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs Jean-Yves Le Drian (left) speaking from Beirut, July 23, 2020 REUTERS / Aziz Taher

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French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian announced Thursday during a visit to Malta that France has started to implement measures against Lebanese figures involved in the political blockade in Lebanon, without a government for nearly nine months.

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With our correspondent in Beirut,

Paul Khalifeh

The measure had been hovering in the air for a few weeks.

The French Minister of Foreign Affairs made it official this Thursday evening: Paris has decided to put in place sanctions targeting Lebanese leaders that it accuses of blocking the formation of a government or of being involved in corruption cases.

France says it is putting in place "

 restrictive measures for access to its territory

 ".

But the nature of these measures is not specified, nor the number of people targeted.

Paris has also failed to

gain the support of other European countries

in the implementation of these sanctions.

Late, insufficient, ineffective, vague: it is therefore in these terms that the Lebanese media commented on the announcement by Jean-Yves Le Drian.

Skepticism also on the side of Internet users who commented on the announcement of the head of French diplomacy.

The NTV television channel understands that no list of names of people affected by restrictive measures in terms of access to French territory has been communicated to the Lebanese authorities.

What makes say to the independent chain that some personalities could be surprised to be refused an entry visa in the Hexagon.

► Read also: 

Crisis in Lebanon: "The formation of a government appears to be a necessary first step"

"Insensitive crocodiles"

The political leaders, mainly concerned by the French sanctions, remained silent.

Jean-Yves Le Drian declared that France reserves the right to take additional measures against all those who hinder the end of the crisis, without specifying the nature.

In the end, these measures may be too light to really count, judge Joseph Bahout, research director at the American University of Beirut.

"

Finally, France, despite all its interpersonal skills in Lebanon, remains France. That is, it is also not the United States, the Gulf countries and others. All in all, for a Lebanese political class which is made up of crocodiles extremely insensitive to many things, that one deprives them of a visa or that there are small measures here or there does not scare them very much. What really scares them, and this is what France today may not be able to legally do, is seize or freeze assets in Paris - and the Lebanese political class has them. It may also mean putting ill-gotten goods under seal, but that requires extremely long legal measures, legal proofs to be provided. We are formoment in a game of gesticulation with a political class which is an absolute cynicism, which has seen others, and which is still capable of letting many things pass before getting down to work. 

"

Leading politicians, including Gebran Bassil, President Michel Aoun's son-in-law and head of the largest Christian parliamentary bloc, as well as several ministers, have already been hit by US sanctions for corruption.

Taken several months ago, these measures have not however facilitated the political unblocking.

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• Corruption