Macron set to meet Lebanon prime minister in Paris today

PARIS: France President Emmanuel Macron will meet Lebanon’s Prime Minister Najib Mikati and army chief Joseph Aoun on Friday in Paris, the French presidency said.

The announcement on Thursday comes as fears have increased in recent days of a regional escalation in the war between Israel and Palestinian group Hamas in Gaza.

Lebanon is grappling with a deep economic and political crisis.

That has been compounded by neardaily cross-border fire between Lebanon’s Hizbollah group and neighbouring Israel ever since war erupted on Oct.7 between Israel and Hamas.

Hizbollah on Thursday said two of its fighters had been killed as Israel appeared to intensify strikes on south Lebanon following an atack by the Iran-backed group that wounded 14 Israeli soldiers.

Fears of a regional conflict have spiked in recent days ater Tehran launched its first ever direct military atack on Israel late on Saturday in retaliation for an April 1 air strike on the Iranian consulate in Damascus widely blamed on Israel.

Lebanon has been without a president for more than a year ater ex-head of state Michel Aoun’s mandate expired, with its feuding factions repeatedly failing in parliament to elect a new leader.

The multi-confessional former French colony is also in the grips of an unprecedented economic crisis.

Mikati has been prime minister since 2021 but leads a caretaker government with limited powers.

Joseph Aoun, no relation to the country’s former president, has good relations with all sides in the country and is sometimes put forward as someone who could lead it out of political deadlock.

Macron has visited the country twice in recent years in a bid to help bring it out of crisis, but then in 2023 assigned the task to former foreign minister Jean-yves Le Drian.