“Everyone knows you have an Iranian agenda. We know your history very well, we know your particular identity, but are you Lebanese, yes or no?”
JERUSALEM POST STAFF
SEPTEMBER 2, 2020 09:28
French President Emmanuel Macron confronted the head of Hezbollah’s parliamentary bloc Mohammed Raad during a visit to Beirut on August 6, asking him “are you Lebanese” and telling him to “prove” it, according to French newspaper Le Figaro.
“I want to work with you to change Lebanon, but prove that you are Lebanese” said Macron, a French source in Beirut told Le Figaro.
“Everyone knows you have an Iranian agenda. We know your history very well, we know your particular identity, but are you Lebanese, yes or no? Do you want to help the Lebanese, yes or no? Are you talking about the Lebanese people, yes or no?” continued Macron.
The French president recommended that Hezbollah “come home, leave Syria and Yemen, and do the job here to build a state because this new state will also benefit your families,” according to Le Figaro.
When asked during a press conference soon after if France would accept Hezbollah members being in a future government, Macron responded that “Hezbollah has deputies elected by the Lebanese, it is part of the political scene.”
Macron’s meeting with Raad was the first of its kind since Hezbollah was founded. Hezbollah announced that it saw Macron’s visit at “positive” and some members of the group saw the meeting as “equivalent to international recognition.”
The French source in Beirut told Le Figaro that Macron told Hezbollah “we do not bore you on the question of your weapons and on two or three points that are important to you; but in return, you put oxygen in the system. Agree to play the game, because we can not continue like this.”
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Macron visited Beirut again on Tuesday and gave Lebanese politicians until the end of October to start delivering on reforms or else financial aid would be withheld, and sanctions imposed further down the line if there is proven corruption.
Reuters contributed to this report.
Content retrieved from: https://www.jpost.com/middle-east/macron-to-hezbollah-mp-are-you-lebanese-prove-it-report-640799.