World powers raised $1 billion to ease the humanitarian crisis in Lebanon and support its army at a conference in Paris on Thursday, with France’s foreign minister urging Israel to heed the message to cease fire and focus on diplomacy.
Some 70 government delegations and 15 international organisations met in Paris to help Lebanon, but a low-level US presence and its looming election dimmed prospects for a swift halt to fighting.
“The message [for Israel] is simple: Cease fire!” France’s foreign minister Jean-Noel Barrot told a news conference, reiterating that a Franco-American proposal for a temporary truce was still on the table.
Mr Barrot said more than $800 million (€740 million), including $300 million from Washington, had been raised primarily to help up to one million displaced with food, healthcare and education.
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A further $200 million would go to the Lebanese Armed Forces (Laf), deemed as the guarantor of internal stability, and also vital to implementing 2006 UN Security Council resolution 1701 that calls for southern Lebanon to be free of any troops or weapons other than those of the Lebanese state.
France has historical ties with Lebanon and has been working with Washington in trying to secure a ceasefire, although the two allies differ on approach regarding 1701.
After Israel rebuffed a 21-day ceasefire plan in September, Paris’s influence has been limited since Israel launched its large-scale onslaught on Iran-backed Hizbullah, which has killed more than 2,500 people and displaced at least 1.2 million.
“The storm we are currently witnessing is unlike any other, because it carries the seeds of total destruction,” Lebanon’s caretaker prime minister Najib Mikati told delegates, pleading for more pressure to be exerted on Israel.
Opening the conference, French president Emmanuel Macron said there must not be a return to past cycles of violence. “More damage, more victims, more strikes will not enable the end of terrorism or ensure security for everyone,” he said.
Despite the repeated calls for a ceasefire, there was no sign on Thursday of the conflict abating. Three Lebanese soldiers were killed in an Israeli strike near the border, said the Lebanese army.
US secretary of state Antony Blinken skipped Paris and appeared to make little progress during a tour of the Middle East, a final push for peace before next month’s US election.
The UN Security Council resolution has never been fully implemented and amid a two-year political power vacuum and collapsed economy, the Lebanese army has no real weight to play its role in the south of the country.
“The final objective is to recruit, train and equip 6,000 new Laf units,” said an Italian diplomatic source, adding that Rome would soon organise a conference focused on this.
Italy has some 1,000 troops as part of the 10,000-strong Unifil peacekeeping mission in Lebanon.
Diplomats say that once there is a ceasefire the mission will need to be made more robust.
“Let’s not reinvent the wheel. We have to make it work,” said EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, adding that amending its mandate would need a new security council vote.
Mr Borrell said there was scope to increase Unifil’s troop numbers to 15,000 under the current mandate. — Reuters