French President Emmanuel Macron has renewed calls for a Lebanese government able to implement reforms in crisis-hit Lebanon.
His statements came during a donor conference hosted by the UN on the first anniversary of the Beirut port explosion.
“Lebanese leaders seem to bet on a stalling strategy, which I regret and I think is a historical and moral failure,” Macron.
“There will be no blank cheque for the Lebanese political system. Because it is they who,
since the start of the crisis but also before that, are failing.”
Since the port explosion last year, France has led international efforts to lift its former colony from a crisis.
The conference aimed to “respond to the needs of the Lebanese whose situation is
deteriorating every day,” France’s foreign ministry said in a statement.
The Blast Anniversary
This came as Lebanon is marking the first anniversary of the Beirut Port blast amid growing
popular protests demanding the lifting of senior officials’ immunity in the port blast probe.
Rights groups including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch also called for a
UN investigation into the explosion in light of the stalled investigation.
More than 200 people were killed during the tragic explosion, while thousands more were injured.
The blast also destroyed much of Beirut’s port and devastated swaths of the capital. Some 300,000 homes were damaged or destroyed.
The first anniversary came as the country witnessed an unprecedented economic and political crisis amid mounting public outrage.
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