PARIS: President Emmanuel Macron, the first world leader to visit Lebanon after the devastating Beirut port blast, will return there next week to press for reform and reconstruction.
Macron will depart Monday for a full day of meetings Tuesday in a bid to boost the reconstruction effort but also looking at political issues as Lebanon searches for a new government, the French presidency said.
Macron visited Beirut on August 6, two days after a massive explosion at the port killed 181 people and wounded thousands.
On August 9, he chaired a video conference that saw world leaders pledge more than 250 million euros ($295 million) for Lebanon.
But he has made it clear that the country needs political reform as well as financial help, a message that has struck a chord with many Lebanese tired of decades of rule by the same political dynasties.
The need for profound change meant "it is the time of responsibility for Lebanon today and its leaders" who required "a new pact with the Lebanese people in the coming weeks", Macron said in Beirut on August 6.
Premier Hassan Diab's cabinet has resigned over the blast, which was blamed on a store of ammonium nitrate left for years in a port warehouse despite warnings.
But in a pattern all-too-familiar to the Lebanese, the country today appears no closer to forming a new government.
France has repeatedly indicated that aid is not a blank cheque and Lebanon must deal with its political and economic problems that led to crisis even before the blast.
"The catastrophe should not be used as a pretext to obscure the reality that existed before of a country that is on the brink of the abyss... and which cannot reform itself," Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said this week.
"We want the Lebanese authorities to take the necessary leap for a government tasked with starting the essential reforms," he said, adding it was "not for us to replace the Lebanese government, it is up to the Lebanese to assume their responsibilities."
Lebanon was under French mandate from the collapse of the Ottoman Empire in the wake of World War I until its independence in November 1943.
France’s Macron returns to Beirut on Monday
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France’s Macron returns to Beirut on Monday
- Macron was the first foreign leader to visit Beirut after the massive port blasts
Iran says can fight intense war for months
- Iran’s security chief accuses Trump administration of seeking to replicate a scenario similar to Venezuela
- Analysts warn there is still no clear path to ending a conflict that could last a month or longer
TEHRAN: Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said Sunday that the country’s forces could fight an intense war for six months against the United States and Israel.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to press on with the war against Iran “with all our force,” with a plan to eradicate the country’s leadership after joint US-Israeli raids killed supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei last week, sparking the regional conflict.
Despite the threat, the Revolutionary Guards said Sunday that the Islamic republic’s forces could wage an “intense war” for six months at the current speed of fighting.
Guards spokesman Ali Mohammad Naini said Iran had so far used “first and second generation” missiles, but will use “advanced and less-used long-range missiles” in the coming days.
‘Trapped’
The widening reach of the war and Iran’s ability to inflict damage and harm were underscored by US President Donald Trump attending the return of six American service members killed in a drone strike on a US base in Kuwait last Sunday.
Iran’s security chief Ali Larijani accused the Trump administration of seeking to replicate a scenario similar to Venezuela where it ousted leader Nicolas Maduro.
“Their perception was that it would be like Venezuela — they would strike, take control and it would be over — but now they are trapped,” he said in a pre-recorded interview broadcast on state TV on Saturday.
Iran’s hardline judiciary chief Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei also warned Middle East neighbors which are “openly and covertly at the disposal of the enemy” that “the heavy attacks on these targets will continue.”
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said Sunday that Tehran “will be forced to respond” if a neighboring country were to be used as a launchpad for any attack or invasion attempt.
Tehran had vowed to go after US assets in the region, and Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait on Sunday all reported new attacks.
No clear way out
Analysts warn there is still no clear path to ending a conflict that US and Israeli officials say could last a month or longer.
Trump has suggested Iran’s economy could be rebuilt if a leader “acceptable” to Washington replaces the late supreme leader, which Tehran has rejected.
China and Russia have largely stayed on the sidelines despite close ties with Tehran.
China’s top diplomat Wang Yi said on Sunday that the war in the Middle East should “never have happened.”
“This is a war that should never have happened,” he told a press conference in Beijing, adding that “a strong fist does not mean strong reason. The world cannot return to the law of the jungle.”
