France's Macron expresses support for new leadership in Lebanon as it recovers from crisis

BEIRUT — French President Emmanuel Macron met Friday with Lebanon's newly elected President Joseph Aoun and vowed to support the small nation as it tries to recover from a historic economic crisis and the 14-month Israel-Hezbollah war.

Macron's trip to Lebanon, his first in more than four years, follows a 60-day ceasefire deal that went into effect Nov. 27 between Israel and Hezbollah that aims to end their war. France helped broker the deal and a French officer is a member of the committee supervising the truce.

Shortly after the ceasefire agreement, Lebanon's parliament overcame a stalemate that had left the presidency vacant for over two years. That cleared the way for the naming of a permanent prime minister, prominent jurist and diplomat Nawaf Salam, who is in the process of forming a new government.

Lebanon's government hopes the political breakthrough will boost international confidence and clear the way for the release funds needed to rebuild after the Israel-Hezbollah war, which killed more than 4,000 and wounded over 16,000 in Lebanon. An international conference for Lebanon in Paris in October raised $1 billion in pledges for humanitarian aid and military support.

Macron, who has been critical of Lebanon's leadership in the past, said during a joint news conference with Aoun that France will be supporting Lebanon and that he hopes the country's new government will open ''a new era, that of a change in political behavior, the return of the state to the benefit of all.''

Aoun asked Macron to be a witness that the confidence of the Lebanese people in their country and state has been restored. ''The world's confidence in Lebanon should be also restored," he said.

"The real Lebanon has come back,'' Aoun said.

''This is a message of gratitude,'' Macron told journalists at the airport.

He later toured parts of Beirut where he spoke to people in the streets and took selfies with them before going to the presidential palace for talks Aoun, Mikati and parliament Speaker Nabih Berri.

Macron said two thirds of the international pledges made during the Paris conference to support Lebanon in October have been met and that France has provided 83 million euros of the 100 million it has promised.

The French leader has been a harsh critic of Lebanon's political class, whom many blame for the decades of corruption and mismanagement that led in October 2019 to the country's worst economic and financial crisis.

For years, Macron has pressed Lebanese officials to implement reforms to help the former French protectorate out of an economic crisis that the World Bank described as among the worst the world has witnessed in more than a century. Few steps have been taken by the country's rulers since then.

The Israel-Hezbollah war has weakened Hezbollah, an Iran-backed militant group that dominated Lebanese politics for years. Hezbollah favored other candidates for president and prime minister but eventually ended up voting for Aoun while abstaining from naming Salam for the premier post.

''President Macron promised to keep support for the new government,'' Mikati said after meeting the French leader at the airport. He added that Macron will meet early Friday with the U.S. and French officers on the ceasefire monitoring committee and will later meet Lebanese officials.

Asked if France can guarantee that Israel will withdraw its troops from Lebanon by the end of the 60-day truce, Mikati said this was not discussed, but said that the French side is following up on the matter with U.S. officials.

Macron said some progress has been made on implementing the ceasefire deal but that more is needed. ''We need a total withdrawal of Israeli forces and that the Lebanese army gets a total monopoly on weapons," he said.

''The ceasefire marked the end of an unbearable spiral of violence ... This is a precious diplomatic success that has saved lives and that we must consolidate,'' Macron said.

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