Macron flies in to play Middle East’s white knight
President’s whirlwind Iraq and Lebanon tour suggests France’s dormant ‘Arab policy’ is back on agenda
EMMANUEL MACRON embarked on a high-stakes, headline-grabbing tour of the Middle East last week that prompted claims France was seeking to reactivate its “Arab policy”.
Just as France relived the trauma of the al-Qaeda-inspired Charlie Hebdo
2015 attacks with the opening of the trial of alleged accomplices in Paris, Mr Macron descended on Beirut, Lebanon’s capital.
In his second visit in a month following the explosion that killed 180 and destroyed half the city, he wrested a promise from Lebanon’s discredited political class to conduct lightning reforms or face a funding drought or, worse, targeted sanctions.
The 42-year-old then went on to pay a whirlwind three-hour visit to Iraq, where he urged the battle-scarred country to assert its “sovereignty” in the face of US-Iran tensions and an increasingly intrusive Turkey.
The back-to-back visits prompted Le
Parisien to headline: “Macron kickstarts France’s Arab policy.”
After Charles de Gaulle first fostered a special relationship with the Arab states of north Africa and the Middle East, the region was subsequently regarded as a “French presidential play thing”, according to Dorothée Schmid, Middle East expert at the Foreign Institute of International Relations (IFRI).
Jacques Chirac was a prime promoter. Nicolas Sarkozy was also deeply involved, unlike his successor François Hollande. Now, with America disengaged and focused on elections, and Britain embroiled in Brexit, Mr Macron has styled himself as the leading European light in the area.
It is a risky bet, as he himself put it. On his first trip to Lebanon in August, he received a hero’s welcome, with 60,000 people signing a petition calling for the country to be returned to French colonial control. But when Mr Macron returned again last week, things did not go quite so swimmingly.
Many regarded his decision to come just after the main political factions had agreed on a new prime minister as a sign that he recognised the old guard, accused of industrial-scale corruption.
Mr Macron insisted there could be no return to the status quo which had seen leaders of various confessions share power since the civil war ended 30 years ago. He met all of them, including, controversially, representatives from Hezbollah, the Iran-backed Shia militant group that is now the strongest force but which the UK and US consider a terrorist group.
Mr Macron insisted, however, this time there would be “no blank cheque”. A third trip is due in December.
The French leader was then whisked off to Iraq for his first visit to Baghdad, with whom France long held close ties but lost virtually all influence after the allied invasions. As the most prominent world leader to visit since Mustafa alKadhimi, the prime minister, came to power in May, he stressed the importance of the country defending its own “sovereignty” and lashed out at Turkey for “repeated” meddling.
Domestic polls suggest his Middle Eastern escapades have helped revive Mr Macron’s approval ratings, along with his success in getting Germany to agree to a €750billion (£669billion) EU recovery package in the wake of Covid.
The string of terror attacks on home soil, many masterminded from Syria
‘His intuitions are strong, his communication is effective, but let’s face it, he has little to show for it’
and Iraq, has underlined the importance of peace in the region.
Marc Semo, Le Monde’s diplomatic correspondent, said while Mr Macron’s strategy of “the permanent coup d’éclat (foreign policy stunt)” captured public attention, it had achieved little.
“His intuitions are strong, his communication is effective, but let’s face it, he has little to show for it,” he said.
“His overplayed friendship with Donald Trump hasn’t stopped (the US president) putting America first. His overtures to (Vladimir) Putin a year ago have unsurprisingly got him nowhere.”
Experts said Mr Macron’s Gaullist go-it-alone tendencies were liable to backfire.
“Macron bangs on about multilateralism yet he acts alone and is currently isolated on the international stage,” said Yves Aubin de la Messuzière, former French ambassador to Tunisia.
Even in Lebanon, the only country where France carries considerable clout, he said “nothing can be done without the Americans”.
“It’s inconceivable that Hezbollah will move while Iran is hit with US sanctions. So we’ll have to wait for the next US election to see how things pan out.”
Meanwhile, Didier Billion, deputy head of the IRIS think tank, said Mr Macron risked shooting himself in the foot if he could not keep in check one of his worst traits: “Arrogance.”