Macron's

As always, tone is everything. "France will never let Lebanon go," said French President Emmanuel Macron as he toured a devastated Beirut this month, after the massive blast at the city's port. Those he was speaking to - a distraught crowd traumatized by an astonishing accident - heard it as the reassurance of a powerful friend. Yet his words had more than a whiff of the unrepentant former colonizer about it.

Nor did the symbolism help. Macron later spoke to the world's media at a press conference, while Lebanon's leaders stood behind him, mute behind their face masks. A political allegory, if perhaps an unintended one. Macron was careful to say that there is "no French solution" for Lebanon, yet his actions tell a different story.

Since his visit, Macron has pushed the Lebanese government to form an interim technocratic government to carry out reforms. He has also apparently expressed his preference for a new prime minister - despite Lebanese parliamentary elections being two years away.

This, then, is the difficulty at the