’YOU ARE NOT ALONE’: WORLD UNITES IN ANGER

BEIRUT: Lebanon’s politicians are facing a furious public and an international community calling for major reforms before significant aid is dispatched to the shattered country.

Grief has turned to anger in a traumatised nation where at least 149 people died and more than 5000 were injured in the colossal explosion of a huge pile of ammonium nitrate that had languished for years in a port warehouse.

French President Emmanuel Macron, on a snap visit to Beirut, pledged to his country’s former colony that France would lead international emergency relief efforts and organise an aid conference in the coming days, promising that “Lebanon is not alone”.

But he also warned that Lebanon – already in desperate need of a multibillion-dollar bailout and hit by political turmoil since October – would “continue to sink” unless it implements urgent reforms.

Speaking of Lebanon’s political leaders, Macron said “their responsibility is huge – that of a revamped pact with the Lebanese people in the coming weeks, that of deep change”. The International Monetary Fund, whose talks with Lebanon started in May but have since stalled, warned that it was “essential to overcome the impasse in the discussions on critical reforms”.

The IMF urged Lebanon, which is seeking more than $20bn in external funding and now faces billions more in disaster costs, “to put in place a meaningful program to turn around the economy”.

Macron’s visit to the small

Mediterranean country, France’s Middle East protege, was the first by a foreign head of state since the unprecedented tragedy. He was thronged by survivors who pleaded with him to help get rid of their reviled ruling elite. “I understand your anger. I am not here to endorse... the regime,” Macron said. “It is my duty to help you as a people, to bring you medicine and food.”