President Michel Aoun met with French Ambassador Anne Grillo at Baabda Palace on Tuesday. (Credit: @LBpresidency)
BEIRUT — President Michel Aoun met Tuesday with the French ambassador to Lebanon, Anne Grillo, who confirmed “the commitment of Saudi Arabia to helping Lebanon” in the framework of the Saudi-French initiative launched Saturday, a statement from the president's office said. Lebanon must, for its part, respect its commitments to the implementation of reforms, the envoy is reported as saying.
Here’s what we know:
• According to a statement issued by the presidency, Grillo said “Saudi Arabia has expressed its commitment to help Lebanon.” France has “taken the first step" to achieve such an initiative, the statement cites her as adding. “Lebanon must, for its part, carry out what has been asked of it and prove its honesty in terms of its commitment to implement reforms, especially structural ones, which require serious working tools, to deal with the deep crisis it is going through," it continues.
• During his visit to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, over the weekend French President Emmanuel Macron announced, after a meeting with Saudi Prince Mohammad bin Salman, an initiative to help Lebanon, which would include the creation of a “French-Saudi humanitarian support mechanism” that could be funded by Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries, in addition to a commitment on the restoration of relations between Beirut and Riyadh.
• The restoration of relations is, however, linked to certain conditions, including “the need to limit the possession of weapons to legal state institutions” — a reference that appears to clearly target the arms of the pro-Iranian Hezbollah party. The kingdom, already having distanced itself from Lebanon for several years, broke all diplomatic and commercial ties with the country at the end of October following the airing of critical comments by then-Information Minister George Kurdahi about Saudi involvement in the war in Yemen. Kurdahi resigned from his ministerial position on Friday.
• On the topic of Lebanon’s upcoming parliamentary elections, Aoun's office says Grillo noted that “the international community and France attach importance to the organization of legislative, municipal and presidential elections next year, especially since they are eagerly awaited by the Lebanese.”
• The Free Patriotic Movement, founded by Aoun and currently headed by his son-in-law Gebran Bassil, filed an appeal with the Constitutional Council on Nov. 17 to invalidate amendments to the electoral law that would see the parliamentary elections held on March 27 instead of in May, raising fears that the polls, seen by many Lebanese as a first step towards political change in the country, could be postponed.