France offers Lebanon symbolic sympathy in descent into war

French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot delivers humanitarian aid to Lebanese capital as Israeli bombing continues

Rescue team members and locals work to find bodies under the rubble of buildings destroyed by an Israeli air strike in southern Lebanon. EPA

French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot was in Beirut on Monday to meet senior Lebanese officials in an effort to prevent an Israeli invasion of Lebanon and deliver humanitarian aid as the European Union held emergency talks to discuss bolstering support for Lebanese institutions.

"There is still hope, but there is little time left" for a diplomatic solution to the conflict, Mr Barrot said in a press conference in the Lebanese capital.

Deadly Israeli attacks on Lebanon continued after the EU, the US, France, the UK and Gulf countries over the weekend called for a 21-day ceasefire on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York.

“It is still on the table. There is still hope, but there is little time left,” Mr Barrot said of the ceasefire proposal. “I want to clarify that this proposal is not just a simple call for a ceasefire. It has been discussed with both parties, and it is the only viable option.”

"Hezbollah bears a heavy responsibility for the current situation, given its decision to involve Lebanon. Its responsibility is to bring an end to the escalation," added Mr Barrot, who declined to answers reporters' questions about the lack of condemnation by France over the killing of two citizens in the recent Israeli strikes.

France, a former colonial power in the region, has traditionally supported Lebanon in times of crises and has called on Israel to stop its bombing campaign, which has killed at least 1,000 people and displaced one million.

“Lebanon must not become a new Gaza,” President Emmanuel Macron said.

Yet many in Beirut view Mr Barrot's visit as largely symbolic, Karim Emile Bitar, professor of international relations at St Joseph University of Beirut, told The National.

“It aims at showing that France has not abandoned its traditional role in Lebanon. However, it is unlikely to yield political results. France has lost considerable soft power in the region as it is perceived as having adopted a pro-Israel position,” Mr Bitar said.

“There is a stark contrast between France’s current pusillanimity and [former French president Charles] de Gaulle’s courage when in December 1968, he imposed a total arms embargo on Israel to punish it after its attack on 14 civilian planes at the Beirut airport.”

France's allies in Lebanon appeared to have little hope that calls for a ceasefire either in Gaza or in Lebanon would be heard in Israel.

Speaking to radio France Inter on Monday, Lebanese Druze leader Walid Joumblatt appeared unconvinced that Mr Barrot's visit to Lebanon could achieve a diplomatic breakthrough.

“Can Mr Barrot get a ceasefire via the UN and then apply 1701? Can he? We saw that Mr Macron was unable to do so in the US,” said Mr Joumblatt, a former militia commander.

Diplomats have repeatedly said the solution to the decade-old conflict between Hezbollah and Israel is to observe the long-ignored 2006 UN resolution 1701, which calls for the withdrawal of Hezbollah from south Lebanon and an end to Israeli breaches of Lebanese airspace.

Hezbollah appears to have been significantly weakened by the killing of its leader and a number of other important figures, which came after an attack using pagers and walkie-talkies rigged with explosives maimed thousands.

"Arms should be silenced"

Speaking after emergency talks among EU foreign ministers on Monday, EU foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell said the bloc must work to prevent Lebanese state institutions, already weakened by a five-year financial crisis, from collapsing.

This includes the Lebanese army, which Lebanon's Western allies would like to see deployed more heavily across the south of the country as a replacement for Hezbollah fighters. UN peacekeepers, who monitor the border with Israel, should also be supported, said Mr Borrell.

"Arms should now be silenced, and the voice of diplomacy should speak and be heard by all," Mr Borrell said. "The sovereignty of both Israel and Lebanon has to be guaranteed, and any further military intervention will dramatically aggravate the situation, and it has to be avoided."

A number of EU countries including Germany have also individually called for Israel to stop bombing Lebanon. Yet Germany, which is the second biggest weapons exporter to Israel after the US, has so far refused to put significant diplomatic pressure on Israel.

EU countries should reconsider this position given the high risk of a wider regional war involving Iran, which supports Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza, said Julien Barnes-Dacey, director of the Middle East and North Africa programme at the think tank ECFR.

“While continuing to press Iran and its allies to end all attacks, European leaders should also use their collective leverage to dissuade Israel from ongoing escalation and press it into an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, which is the clearest and probably only pathway to de-escalating wider tensions,” said Mr Barnes-Dacey.

“This should include suspending arms sales to Israel and reviewing the EU’s Association Agreement with the country – the linchpin of their bilateral relations and a key source of economic leverage. Europeans should work closely with Arab Gulf states to press the US to use its military leverage over [Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin] Netanyahu before it is too late.”

During his two-day visit to Lebanon, Mr Barrot was scheduled to meet Lebanese Christian Maronite patriarch Bechara Boutros Rai, Prime Minister Najib Mikati, army chief Gen Joseph Aoun, Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, and representatives of the UN interim force in Lebanon, which is deployed along the border with Israel.

No meeting with Hezbollah political leaders appeared on Mr Barrot's agenda, although Mr Macron and his special envoy for Lebanon, Jean-Yves Le Drian, have previously met the leader of Hezbollah's parliamentary bloc, Mohammad Raad. Mr Borrell also met Mr Raad in January.

The EU and France have classified Hezbollah's military wing as a terrorist organisation but not its political leaders so as to keep diplomatic channels open.

Mr Barrot's first step on arrival in Beirut on Sunday night was to deliver 12 tonnes of medical aid to Lebanese authorities, enough to treat 1,000 seriously wounded people in hospitals. “We will always stand on the side of civilians,” Mr Barrot wrote on X.

He also announced the release of emergency humanitarian aid of €10 million ($11.2 million) to support the work of humanitarian organisations, including the Lebanese Red Cross.

“I have also allocated €10 million to support these humanitarian organisations, including the Red Cross. These funds are part of the €100 million we have already spent in Lebanon this year,” he said during the press conference.

In a statement on Saturday, the French Foreign Affairs Ministry called for an “immediate cessation of Israeli strikes in Lebanon and condemned any indiscriminate action against civilians.” It added that: “France is opposed to any ground operation in Lebanon.”

“Lebanon is going to need all the help it can get because the humanitarian situation is going to be very tough,” said Rym Momtaz, editor in chief of Carnegie Europe’s blog Strategic Europe.

But France can do more than simply sending humanitarian aid by working with the Lebanese army and Unifil to bolster their presence in south Lebanon, paving the way to putting UN Resolution 1701 into effect, Ms Momtaz told The National.

Israel must also play its part by not invading Lebanon and ceasing its constant breaches of Lebanese sovereignty, whether with drones, sonic booms or air strikes, added Ms Momtaz. “Without that, there cannot be peace,” she said.

In Beirut, where France is viewed as not having done enough to pressure Israel to stop expanding its military campaign, there was little hope for change.

Nobody can stop Israel, said Mr Joumblatt. “Israel does what it wants in Middle Eastern skies. Nobody dares stop Netanyahu, neither France, nor the US, nor anybody,” he said.