Macron, who is the first foreign leader to visit the Lebanese capital since the port warehouse explosion, said: “I want to organize European cooperation and, more broadly, international cooperation.”
The French president will only stay for a few hours as he surveyed the port in its current state. He also met with the country’s top officials.
France has long sought to support its former colony and is sending emergency aid, but diplomats say it has become increasingly concerned about corruption, while pressing for reforms for some time.
Red Cross future fears
The International Committee of the Red Cross spokesperson, Rona Halabi, said in an interview with DW that the humanitarian organization were looking into ways of facilitating the movement of goods coming into the country, hoping to use other ports, though recognizing those import areas have a limited capacity.
Halabi also feared for the long-term ramifications on Lebanon’s already buckling economy, with a potential return of the unrest witnessed last year.
“We’re talking about protests that happened in October and economic crisis, dire economic conditions,” she said, before adding that the country’s “health system is already stretched because of the COVID-19 pandemic.”