French President Emmanuel Macron's second visit to Lebanon's capital next Monday represents the final opportunity for the main political components to prove their readiness to move forward with the necessary reforms and the formation of a new government that would be able to adopt an efficient rescue plan.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian, in anticipation of Macron’s arrival in Beirut, issued a series of warnings, stating that the Lebanese state “will disappear” unless the parties “respond to the return of international interest in their country after an interruption that lasted for years.”
“The risk today is of Lebanon disappearing so these measures have to be taken,” Le Drian told RTL radio on Thursday.
Talking about Lebanon’s political class, he said: “They are caught up between themselves in a consensus of inactivity…That can’t go on and we are saying that very clearly.”
The French minister wanted to raise the alarm, warning against taking the country into a void, and calling on the parties to soften their position and benefit from the assistance that Macron is personally sponsoring, by giving priority to forming a government whose mission remains limited to implementing the road map to save the country from the economic and financial collapse.
Meanwhile, sources noted that President Michel Aoun is ignoring the tragedy that struck Beirut as a result of the explosion on Aug. 4 and was trying to pretend that the situation was still under control, even though his political power has drastically declined and the Free Patriotic Movement is suffering from isolation in the Christian street.
Meanwhile, the country’s former prime ministers, including Saad Hariri, Fouad Siniora, Najib Mikati and Tamam Salam, met on Wednesday evening and agreed on Aoun’s need to hold the binding parliamentary consultations before nominating a prime minister.
Earlier this week, Hariri announced that he was not a candidate to head the new government, urging all parties to withdraw his name from the ongoing deliberations.
However, sources told Asharq Al-Awsat that Speaker Nabih Berri was insisting on nominating Hariri as prime minister, despite the latter’s rejection to assume the post. The sources noted that Berri was putting forward Hariri’s name during his negotiations with other political components.
