Beirut/Wassim Saif Al-Din/Anatolia
French President Emmanuel Macron has announced that he will take “initiatives regarding (the current political crisis in) Lebanon” in the coming weeks.
Macron’s statement came in an interview with Lebanese newspapers ‘An-Nahar’, ‘Le Monde’ and ‘The Wall Street Journal’ published on Friday, following his attendance at the ‘Baghdad 2’ conference in the Jordanian capital Amman on Tuesday last .
He said: “I will take initiatives in the coming weeks at all levels (regarding Lebanon), and I will make a big effort for that.”
He added: “What worries me are Lebanese men and women, because the political class that lives off the country doesn’t have the courage to change.”
The French president expressed his dissatisfaction with “the behavior of this class” and his doubts about the “energy of the Lebanese people to push for change”.
And he continued: “We want to help find an alternative political solution by establishing concrete projects and at the same time not being lenient with the political class”.
In response to a question whether he supported army commander General Joseph Aoun’s candidacy for president, he said: “France will not enter the name game for the presidency because it has already stepped in many times in the past and failed once out of two. “
He stressed that “Lebanon needs an honest president and prime minister”.
He underlined that he wanted “to help Prime Minister Najib Mikati, who is making an effort, despite everything, to do everything possible and not to concede to those who have become rich and want to stay and extort”.
On the organization of Hezbollah, the French president stated that the party “exists, both at the security or cover level, but also at the official and elected level. They benefit on the ground from the incapacity of the political system and mechanism and from all the of us to solve people’s problems”.
Macron believed that “Lebanon’s problem lies in solving people’s problems, restructuring the financial system, and then working out a plan with two honest presidents of the republic and the government.”
From the outset, he expressed his belief that “the Lebanese and Syrian problems can only be solved in the context of talks aimed at reducing Iran’s regional influence”.
He continued: “We will work on concrete projects, as I discussed with Jordan’s King Abdullah II a project in the electricity sector for Lebanon,” without further details.
Since last June, political differences in Lebanon have prevented the formation of a new government led by Mikati, after parliament reappointed him after his government resigned during parliamentary elections last May.
Since last September, MPs have also failed to elect a new president to succeed Michel Aoun, whose mandate expired on October 31, despite holding 10 parliamentary sessions to that end.
This crisis in Lebanon is unprecedented, without a president, an interim government with limited powers and a parliament divided over different options.
Lebanon is looking for solutions to get out of the tunnel of its financial, economic and monetary crisis, including knocking on the door of the International Monetary Fund to obtain a financial loan and the possibility of floating the local currency.
And at the end of January 2022, the Lebanese government officially started negotiations with the International Monetary Fund on an economic recovery program in the country.
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