‘Help us to help you’, France tells crisis-hit Lebanon and be neutral

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BEIRUT – France told Lebanon on Thursday it had no alternative to an IMF programme as it wrestles with an acute financial crisis and Beirut must enact reforms urgently if it is to win international support. 

Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian tells Lebanon . “Help us to help you is the message of my visit,”and stay out of conflicts in the region.

“Help us to help you is the message of my visit,” Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said after meeting Lebanese leaders in Beirut, adding that Paris stood ready to mobilise support but there must be concrete action on reform.

The financial crisis, rooted in decades of state corruption and waste, marks the biggest threat to Lebanon’s stability since the 1975-90 civil war. A collapsing currency has led to soaring inflation and poverty and savers have lost free access to accounts in a paralysed banking system. 

Former colonial ruler France has led international efforts to get Lebanon to reform, hosting a donor meeting in 2018 when more than $11 billion was pledged for infrastructure investment contingent on reforms which were promised but not delivered. 

Lebanon began talks with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in May but these have been put on hold in the absence of reforms and as differences arose between the government, the banking sector and politicians over the scale of vast financial losses in the system. 

One area donors want to see progress is in fixing the state-owned electricity grid which bleeds up to $2 billion a year in public funds while failing to meet the country’s power needs. 

Anti-Hezbollah protesters in front of the French embassy in Beirut on July 14, 2020. – Hussein Malla / AP / SIPA. UN resolution 1559 calls for disarming all the militias in Lebanon. Hezbollah is the only militia that was allowed by Syria during its 29 year military occupation of Lebanon to keep its arms . Le Drian said it was essential for Lebanon to respect a policy of staying out of conflicts in the region, where Shiite Hezbollah has supported Iran in its power struggle with Sunni-led Gulf Arab states. 

Le Drian said actions in the power sector so far were not encouraging.

Lebanon, with one of the highest public debt burdens in the world, defaulted on its foreign currency sovereign debt in March, citing critically low reserves. The Lebanese pound has lost some 80% of its value since October. 

Le Drian also said it was essential for Lebanon to respect a policy of staying out of conflicts in the region, where the Lebanese Shi’ite group Hezbollah has supported Iran in its power struggle with Sunni-led Gulf Arab states. 

A cartoon showing Lebanon transformation from Switzerland of the East to a colony of Iran. Many Lebanese now feel that Lebanon is an Iranian colony . For Iran Hezbollah in Lebanon is Iran in Lebanon and Iran reportedly considers its border starts in Hezbollah’s stronghold of south Lebanon.

His last comment was a possible nod to Maronite Patriarch Beshara el-Rai’s campaign for Lebanon neutrality. Rai has been stressing in his campaign that only neutrality makes Lebanon an independent and sovereign state capable of imposing its authority on all Lebanon’s territory.

(Reuters)

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2 responses to “‘Help us to help you’, France tells crisis-hit Lebanon and be neutral”

  1. I think the Lebanese people should be extremely grateful to France for taking a lot of risk during the coronavirus pandemic in sending its Foreign minister to Lebanon to tell the corrupt Lebanese political mafia what they already know but refuse to do because they are a bunch of cowards who don’t give a damn about the country or its people. I am really glad the French FM took the time to see Patriarch Rai , because the Patriarch’s campaign for neutrality is the most important political development in Lebanon and could be the only development that can save the country from the grip of Iran . We the Lebanese people who believe in this great country’s sovereign and independence are sick and tired to be a colony of such a backward country like Iran that has absolutely nothing to offer to Lebanon except misery and death.

    1. Unfortunately France is also not angel. Even Israel is not angel) Only beautiful young girls are like angels

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