The Times - UK (2020-08-07)

28 2GM Friday August 7 2020 | the times

Wo r l d

Shirt sleeves rolled up and with cheers
ringing in his ears, President Macron of
France, Lebanon’s former colonial
power, waded into the crowds in Beirut
yesterday to say he stood with them
against a ruling class they denounce as
corrupt.
Mr Macron flew to the Lebanese
capital to offer support after Tuesday’s
devastating port explosion, which is
believed to have killed at least 137
people.
On a walkabout in the glass-strewn
city centre with President Aoun of Leb-
anon he was mobbed by people calling
on him to help them against their gov-
ernment.
“The people want the downfall of the
regime — revolution,” they chanted,
echoing protests across the Arab world
in recent years. This time their anger
was directed at a national leadership
that has overseen a collapse in eco-
nomic confidence, rising coronavirus
cases and now the country’s worst
disaster since the dark days of the civil
war.
Lebanon is notionally a democracy
but ordinary people say that the sectar-
ian power-sharing system that ended
the war three decades ago has left them
with a collection of mini-dictatorships.
Each faction’s leaders exploit their
hold on religiously affiliated constitu-
encies to carve out limitless political
power and monetary perks. Mr Macron
expressed sympathy for Lebanon’s
plight after the explosion — but also,
implicitly, the plight of the people under
political mismanagement.
“I guarantee you this,” he told a group
of residents. “Aid will not go to corrupt
hands. I will talk to all political forces to
ask them for a new pact. I am here today
to propose a new political pact to them.”
To another group, he said: “I see the
emotion on your face, the sadness, the
pain. This is why I’m here.”
Officials said that as well as the dead,
an estimated 5,000 people had suffered
significant injuries in the blast, which
sent shock waves ten miles across the
city and its suburbs. The city author-
ities said that up to 300,000 people
whose houses were damaged had
sought refuge elsewhere.
The explosion happened when a fire,
allegedly sparked by welders repairing
an electrical fault, spread to a ware-
house containing 2,750 tonnes of ex-
plosive ammonium nitrate.
Even as parts of Beirut tried to clean

up, with shopkeepers and residents

sweeping away the acres of glass that

littered their homes and pavements,

rescue workers continued to search for

survivors in the wreckage.

Before his arrival Mr Macron sent 55

search and rescue specialists, along

with 25 tonnes of medical supplies in

two military transport planes. One

French officer with a search party said

it was possible that seven or eight

people were still trapped. They were

thought to be under a collapsed port

control tower, he said. Diggers were

being used in the search.

A young girl was found under the

rubble after 24 hours when rescuers

heard her crying. In perhaps the most

remarkable incident, Amin al-Zahed, a

port worker, was reported to have been

found floating out at sea, bloodied but

still alive, 30 hours after being blown

into the water by the force of the blast.

France has led the way in recent

months in proposing a package of eco-

nomic support in return for structural

reforms to deal with Lebanon’s

financial crisis. That caused a clash ten

days ago between Hassan Diab, the

prime minister, and Jean-Yves Le

Drian, the French foreign minister.

The row adds a layer of complicated

regional politics to Beirut’s reconstruc-

tion. Mr Diab is said to be close to

Hezbollah, the Iran-backed militia

group that the West would like to side-

line from its commanding role in the

Lebanese government.

Since Hezbollah took the leading role

in appointing the cabinet after elec-

tions in 2018, Lebanon’s economic crisis

has worsened.

That is owing in part to the collapse

of the Iranian and Syrian economies

under the weight of US sanctions. Iran’s

payments to Hezbollah have been cut,

and Syrian businessmen have been

forced to withdraw their money from

Beirut, a favoured banking base during

the civil war.

There have also been direct sanc-

tions on Lebanese banks deemed by the

Americans to have done business with

Hezbollah.

Mr Macron is now likely to be work-

ing closely with western allies to

fine-tune their aid response. Britain

and the US agree with France that it is

worth supporting the formal institu-

tions of the Lebanese state, at least as a

possible counterbalance to Hezbollah’s

influence. Britain, for example, helps to

train the Lebanese army in border

security, despite parts of the border in

Analysis

A

s President

Macron toured

the streets of

Beirut yesterday

he must have felt

a sense of schadenfreude,

no doubt carefully hidden

(Richard Spencer writes).

Ten days ago the man he

was to meet, Hassan Diab,

Lebanon’s prime minister,

had snubbed France on

Twitter, spurning Mr

Macron’s offer of financial

assistance on condition of

political reform. Jean-Yves

Le Drian, Mr Macron’s

foreign minister, had shown

a “lack of knowledge of the

path of government

reforms”, Mr Diab said.

Yet here was Mr Macron

being hailed by the crowds

as a potential saviour. Some

shouted at his motorcade,

demanding the fall of the

“regime”. People were

asking the former colonial

power to return.

The “fall of the regime”

that many people seek is

linked not only to Tuesday’s

devastating explosion but

also to a wider malaise.

Lebanon has collapsed

economically since the

country defaulted on a

small debt. The supply of

foreign currency dried up,

along with imports.

For years ordinary

Lebanese had accused the

governing and banking

elites of being thieves. Now

these charges seemed to be

vindicated. The banks were

refusing people their

deposits but the directors

and their friends in politics

were transferring billions of

dollars to bank accounts

abroad.

Almost everyone agrees

that at the heart of

Lebanon’s problems is the

power-sharing agreement

that ended the civil war in

1990 and oversaw 30 years

of peace. Each faction,

religious and political, got

its bite of the cherry. When

the global financial crisis

struck in 2008, along with

wars in Syria and Iraq, the

tide went out.

The political leaders,

however, know that the

sectarian card remains

powerful.

Logic would suggest that

a disaster of Tuesday’s

magnitude would finish off

Lebanon’s staggering,

weakened, unfeasible

political infrastructure.

In fact, it may give it one

more breath of life. People

sweeping up glass and

trying to rebuild their city

have little time for

revolution.

Mr Macron is aware of

this. Mr Le Drian was quick

to say that assistance, even

emergency aid, must be

accompanied by political

reform.

Whether the West has

the energy to enforce that is

another matter.

President Macron, in face covering and his

Macron embraces Lebanese as

effect being under the control of

Hezbollah’s smuggling operations. But

they will also want to promote western

business investment to replace a cul-

ture of local cronyism, as well as ensur-

ing that aid goes to the people who most

need it.

Britain has said that it is making

£5 million of emergency humanitarian

funding available as an initial response

to the disaster.

“This was a devastating explosion

which has caused enormous suffering

and damage,” Dominic Raab, the for-

eign secretary, said. “The UK is a long-

standing friend of Lebanon and the

Lebanese people and will stand with

them in their hour of need.”

Mr Macron’s office said he was deter-

mined to show that France was still

Lebanon’s leading western backer.

“For the president, it’s a matter of

showing that France is there — that is

its role — and that he believes in Leba-

non,” the Élysée Palace said. But its

statement added that a new constitu-

tional settlement was needed to meet

popular demands.

“The visit is also an opportunity to

lay down the foundations for a pact for

the reconstruction of Lebanon, binding

for all, that will limit conflicts, offer

immediate aid and open up a long-term

perspective.”

Pro-western voices even within the

Lebanese system are calling on France

to ensure that longer-term aid remains

conditional on reform.

Doctors, shopkeepers and protesters

in the disaster zone have told The Times

that the explosion represented the very

mixture of political failure, corruption

and administrative incompetence

about which they had been protesting

for months.

Mr Le Drian said: “The country has

the necessary strength to recover.

What is needed is that a certain number

of reforms are put in place.”

For their part, Mr Aoun and Mr Diab

have promised only an inquiry into the

circumstances of the accident.

Even Israel, which is technically in a

state of war with Lebanon, said that it

had offered support through the United

Nations.

On the other side of the Middle East’s

great divide, Iran’s Red Crescent

promised to send nine tonnes of food

supplies. Grain silos were destroyed in

the blast and the port also serves as the

main route into the country for food

imports, on which its five million Leba-

nese residents and 1.5 million Syrians,

mostly refugees, are dependent.

The ammonium nitrate that blew up

with devastating consequences in

Beirut had been destined for an explo-

sives factory in Mozambique.

Earlier reports had suggested that

the consignment was for use in fertilis-

er, but the contract for delivery lists

Fabrica de Explosivos in a suburb of

Maputo, the capital of the former Por-

tuguese colony. The company, located

in Matola on the western side of the

city, makes commercial explosives.

The 2,750 tonnes of ammonium

nitrate was paid for by the International

Bank of Mozambique.

Anger is growing about why the

Ship loaded

Tom Parfitt Moscow

Lebanon
Richard Spencer Beirut

Behind the story

W

hen the

Ottoman

empire

was split

up by European

powers after the First

World War, France

was given a mandate

to run Lebanon and

Syria.

That mandate

lasted little more than

20 years until both

countries wrenched

themselves out of

French control in the

1940s to win

independence.

Yet ever since, Paris

has retained what it

likes to call a special

relationship with

Beirut. Lebanese

diplomats have come

to look to their

French counterparts

for support on the

international stage.

Paris, for its part,

views Beirut as its

gateway to the Middle

East, a region in

which its influence

has otherwise waned

notably in recent

decades.

French leaders,

keen to maintain the

notion that their

country remains a

world power, have

gone out of their way

to court the Lebanese.

Jacques Chirac, for

instance, president of

France from 1995 to

2007, was particularly

close to Rafic Hariri,

the late Lebanese

prime minister.

Indeed, Mr Hariri’s

son allowed Mr

Chirac to live in a

396 sq m flat that he

owned opposite the

Louvre in Paris after

the French leader left

office.

President Macron

has followed suit.

When another of

Mr Hariri’s sons,

Saad, who also

became Lebanese

prime minister, was

detained in Saudi

Arabia in 2017, Mr

Macron intervened to

free him.

A year later, Mr

Macron organised an

international

conference in Paris to

raise funds for Beirut.

Despite the

diplomatic activity,

however, France’s

economic influence in

Lebanon is limited. It

is only the seventh

biggest exporter to

Lebanon and 18th

biggest importer of

Lebanese goods.