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World powers raised US$1 billion ($1.5 billion) to ease Lebanon’s humanitarian crisis and support the military at a conference in Paris, with France’s foreign minister urging Israel to heed a message ceasefire and focus on diplomacy.
About seventy government delegations and fifteen international organizations met in Paris on Thursday to help Lebanon.
“The message (for Israel) is simple: a ceasefire,” French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot said at a news conference, reiterating that a French-American proposal for a temporary ceasefire is still pending table lay.
Barrot said more than US$800 million ($1.2 billion), including US$300 million ($451 million) from the United States, had been raised mainly to help up to a million displaced Lebanese with food, health care and education.
Another US$200 million ($301 million) would go to the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF), which is considered the guarantor of internal stability and also crucial for the implementation of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1701 2006, calling for southern Lebanon to be free from all forms of violence. troops or weapons other than those of the Lebanese state.
France has historic ties with Lebanon and has worked with the US to broker a ceasefire, although the two allies differ in their approaches regarding Resolution 1701.
After Israel rejected a plan for a 21-day ceasefire in September, Paris’s influence has been limited since Israel launched its massive attack on Lebanon, killing more than 2,500 people and displacing at least 1.2 million have been beaten. Israel says it is targeting the Lebanese group Hezbollah.
“The storm we are currently witnessing is unlike any other because it carries within it the seeds of total destruction,” Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati told delegates, calling for more pressure on Israel.
Opening the conference, French President Emmanuel Macron said there should be no return to previous cycles of violence.
“More damage, more victims and more strikes will not enable the end of terrorism or guarantee safety for all,” he said.
An Israeli attack kills three Lebanese troops
Despite repeated calls for a ceasefire, there was no sign of the conflict easing on Thursday. Three Lebanese soldiers were killed in an Israeli attack near the border, the Lebanese army said.
The Lebanese soldiers were killed as they evacuated injured people on the outskirts of the southern village of Yater, the Lebanese army said.
There was no immediate comment on the attack from the Israeli army, which has previously said it is not operating against the Lebanese army.
UN Security Council Resolution 1701 has never been fully implemented, and amid a two-year political power vacuum and a collapsed economy, the Lebanese army has no real leverage to play its role in the south of the country.
“The ultimate goal is to recruit, train and equip 6,000 new LAF units,” an Italian diplomatic source said, adding that Rome would soon organize its own conference on the matter.
Italy has about 1,000 troops as part of the 10,000-strong United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL).
Diplomats say that once a ceasefire is in place, the mission should be made more robust.
“Let’s not reinvent the wheel. We have to make it work,” EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said, adding that changing the mandate would require a new vote in the UN Security Council.
Borrell said there is scope under the current mandate to increase UNIFIL’s troop numbers to 15,000.
“The goal this time is to find conditions that guarantee the continued application of 1701 so that peace returns to both sides,” something that is easier said than done, Barrot said.
