Emmanuel Macron plants a cedar tree during his visit to Lebanon on September 1, 2020. -

Gonzalo Fuentes / AP / SIPA

What if an international conference to support Lebanon takes place in Paris?

It was Emmanuel Macron who suggested this idea on Tuesday.

The French president is making his second trip to the country since the devastating explosion in Beirut almost a month ago.

"We must continue to mobilize the entire international community (...) I am ready to reorganize, perhaps around mid-end of October, an international support conference with the United Nations", he told representatives of the UN and local NGOs on the Le Tonnerre helicopter carrier at the port of Beirut.

"I am completely ready even to welcome him to Paris (...), that we can again ask for support from all States to finance" the needs on the ground, promised the French president, insisting on the need for "very firm" coordination with the UN.

"We don't know where the help is going"

During his meeting with representatives of civil society, the French President drew up an initial assessment of the aid channeled to Lebanon and the challenges, particularly organizational, which NGOs are facing.

Some have complained about a lack of transparency or adequacy between real needs and the aid sent.

“We haven't had a good assessment of the aid since August 4.

We see planes arriving but we don't know where the help is going.

80% of the drugs arriving in Lebanon are not suitable, ”said Antoine Zoghbi, the president of the Lebanese Red Cross.

"I understood that there was mistrust of the Lebanese public authorities or a feeling of failure," replied Emmanuel Macron.

"The challenge you mention is an organizational challenge in a climate (...) where mistrust is poisonous".

“It seems to me that if we want to try to help as best we can (...) it is to work on the United Nations platform in conjunction with you so that we can have an expression of needs (...) and traceability of everything that happens, ”he added.

"We will continue to support and do the maximum with the states that give," concluded the French president.

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