The international conference to support Lebanon, from which the United States is absent, will begin today, Thursday, in the capital of France, Paris, and other world powers will take participate in the conference to provide emergency humanitarian aid to Lebanon, support its security forces, and push for a ceasefire.
According to a framework document sent to delegations, the conference, which comes at the initiative of French President Emmanuel Macron, “aims to emphasize the need to stop hostilities on the basis of UN Security Council Resolution No 1701 issued in 2006, which calls for southern Lebanon to be free of unauthorized forces or weapons.” Those belonging to the state of Lebanon.
The conference also aims to “mobilize the international community to support between 500,000 and one million displaced people.” The Lebanese government says it needs $250 million a month to deal with the crisis.”
The conference also aims to “strengthen support for the Lebanese Armed Forces, which is considered the guarantor of internal stability, and which plays an important role in the implementation of Resolution 1701.”
Officials explained that support for the military forces “is aimed at ensuring the payment of salaries and food supplies, medical supplies, equipment and training with the aim of allowing the military to increase and eventually deploy its personnel in the south.”
“It is important that we can make progress and create concrete steps,” a French presidential official told reporters ahead of the conference.
Lebanon’s caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati, as well as key ministers involved in relief efforts, are expected to participate in the conference, however, neither Iran nor Israel have been invited, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu criticized the conference.
Diplomats say they do not expect to make much progress because the United States – Israel’s first ally – is focused on their efforts, citing the absence of its Secretary of State, Anthony Blinken, from the conference.
Blinken chose to make a final trip to the Middle East before next month’s US presidential elections, and will miss the meeting in Paris, although he will be in London tomorrow, Friday , and sends his representative.
France has a historic relationship with Lebanon and cooperates with Washington in an effort to reach a ceasefire, but its influence has been limited since Israel launched a major attack on Hezbollah in the Last September, which led to the displacement of thousands and the killing of more than two thousand people.
Paris worked to prepare for the conference in an attempt to show that it still has influence in a country where it lived in the past, but despite the participation of 70 delegations and 15 an international group in the conference, the number of influential ministers takes a small part. Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud will also attend.
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2024-10-24 07:23:00
