Emmanuel Macron is expected this Thursday in Lebanon, where two gigantic explosions plunged the capital into chaos on Tuesday. He will be the first foreign head of state to visit Beirut since the disaster. A trip that promises to be delicate in a country plunged into crisis.
Emmanuel Macron will be faced with an "apocalyptic" situation: hundreds of thousands of people brutally deprived of shelter and resources and a still provisional toll of at least 113 dead and 4,000 injured. Expected in Beirut at noon, the French president will visit the site of the disaster, meet with key Lebanese officials and give a press conference around 6.30 p.m. local time before returning to France.
Emergency health equipment
“The fact that Emmanuel Macron so quickly took the bull by the horns and decided to come to Beirut was very well received. This is part of a long tradition of very solid ties between France and Lebanon, ”Karim Emile Bitar, director of the Institute of Political Science at Saint Joseph University in Beirut, reminds AFP.
The French president, who wishes to “bring the message of fraternity and solidarity of the French” to the “Lebanese people”, will meet his counterpart Michel Aoun and Prime Minister Hassan Diab. "It is in hardship that the friends are there and we are there", underlined the head of French diplomacy Jean-Yves Le Drian. As of Wednesday, emergency equipment and medical personnel were sent to Lebanon. A first flight took off from Marseille in the morning, a second from Paris around 5 p.m., a third was scheduled for the end of the day.
A country plunged into crisis
Former mandatory power (1920-1943), France is a traditional ally of Lebanon. Unlike other big players like the United States, she speaks to all Lebanese parties, including the powerful pro-Iranian Shiite movement Hezbollah, and is also active in negotiations with the country's donors. Paris intends to play a leading role there with "initiatives in the days to come" in order to mobilize the necessary international aid, particularly at European level, according to Jean-Yves le Drian. It can also call on its networks in the Gulf where it is "close to powers like Arabia which have considerable influence in Lebanon", underlines Karim Emile Bitar.
It remains to be seen the tone that Emmanuel Macron will adopt during this visit, while Lebanon was going through a serious economic and social crisis before the explosion and that public opinion is very upset against its political class, which it considers corrupt and unable to initiate reforms. Does he come above all to show his solidarity or will he criticize like his foreign minister in July the absence of government reforms to get the country out of the crisis? "The Lebanese want Mr. Macron to speak directly to them rather than to this political class which in their eyes is completely discredited", points out Karim Emile Bitar.
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