Lebanese Leaders Respond to Macron’s Call to ‘Remove Them’ with Silence

The French President during his visit to the port of Beirut after the explosion in August 2020 (Getty Images)
The French President during his visit to the port of Beirut after the explosion in August 2020 (Getty Images)
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Lebanese Leaders Respond to Macron’s Call to ‘Remove Them’ with Silence

The French President during his visit to the port of Beirut after the explosion in August 2020 (Getty Images)
The French President during his visit to the port of Beirut after the explosion in August 2020 (Getty Images)

Lebanese politicians acted with disinterest towards the harsh statements made by French President Emmanuel Macron during his return from the Jordanian capital, Amman. Macron had attacked the Lebanese leaders, urging a change in the country's leadership.

Macron's statements are considered the harshest that he had leveled against the Lebanese political class so far.

The French president visited Beirut twice.

Macron’s first visit followed the Beirut port explosion in August 2020. In his second visit, which came about a month later, Macron gathered Lebanese leaders around a round table at the headquarters of the French embassy.

The French leader invited Lebanese politicians to agree on a formula that would allow the formation of a new government and pave the way for a solution to the worsening economic crisis.

“My answer is to try to help bring a political alternative to life... and to be intractable with political forces,” Macron said in media interviews.

He urged ignoring influential forces who have been keen on practicing extortion in Lebanon.

“I care about Lebanese men and women, not those living off their backs,” he said.

Macron said the priority now was to have “honest” people as president and as prime minister capable of moving swiftly to restructure Lebanon's failed financial system.

Responding to Macron’s statements, member of the Progressive Socialist Party, MP Bilal Abdallah, stressed that leadership change in Lebanon was a matter of sovereignty.

“Changing the leadership and the political system in Lebanon is a sovereign issue that is subject to the will of the Lebanese people, who alone decide who their leaders are, choose and hold accountable according to the mechanisms provided by our democratic system,” Abdallah told Asharq Al-Awsat.

Lebanese Forces bloc MP Ghassan Hasbani, in response to Macron’s remarks, said that those hindering reform are known and that the Lebanese crisis can be solved by the election of a reformist president and placing the right people in executive power.



Rights Defenders Denounce US Sanctions on UN Expert on Palestinians

UN Special Rapporteur for the occupied Palestinian territories, Francesca Albanese gives a press conference at the UN City in Copenhagen, Denmark February 5, 2025. Ritzau Scanpix/Ida Marie Odgaard via REUTERS/File Photo
UN Special Rapporteur for the occupied Palestinian territories, Francesca Albanese gives a press conference at the UN City in Copenhagen, Denmark February 5, 2025. Ritzau Scanpix/Ida Marie Odgaard via REUTERS/File Photo
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Rights Defenders Denounce US Sanctions on UN Expert on Palestinians

UN Special Rapporteur for the occupied Palestinian territories, Francesca Albanese gives a press conference at the UN City in Copenhagen, Denmark February 5, 2025. Ritzau Scanpix/Ida Marie Odgaard via REUTERS/File Photo
UN Special Rapporteur for the occupied Palestinian territories, Francesca Albanese gives a press conference at the UN City in Copenhagen, Denmark February 5, 2025. Ritzau Scanpix/Ida Marie Odgaard via REUTERS/File Photo

Human rights defenders rallied on Thursday to support the top UN expert on Palestinian rights, after the United States imposed sanctions on her over what it said was unfair criticism of Israel.

Italian lawyer Francesca Albanese serves as special rapporteur on human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories, one of dozens of experts appointed by the 47-member UN Human Rights Council to report on specific global issues.

She has long criticized Israeli treatment of the Palestinians, and this month published a report accusing over 60 companies, including some US firms, of supporting Israeli settlements in the West Bank and military actions in Gaza.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced on Wednesday Albanese would be added to the US sanctions list for work which had prompted what he described as illegitimate prosecutions of Israelis at the International Criminal Court.

United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk urged Washington to reverse course.

"Even in the face of fierce disagreement, UN Member States should engage substantively and constructively, rather than resort to punitive measures," he said, Reuters reported.

Juerg Lauber, the Swiss permanent representative to the UN who now holds the rotating presidency of the Human Rights Council, said he regretted the sanctions, and called on states to "refrain from any acts of intimidation or reprisal" against the body's experts.

Mariana Katzarova, who serves as the special rapporteur for human rights in Russia, said her concern was that other countries would follow the US lead.

"This is totally unacceptable and opens the gates for any other government to do the same," she told Reuters. "It is an attack on UN system as a whole. Member states must stand up and denounce this."

Russia has rejected Katzarova's mandate and refused to let her enter the country, but it has so far stopped short of publicly adding her to a sanctions list.

Washington has already imposed sanctions against officials at the International Criminal Court, which has issued arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defense minister for suspected war crimes in Gaza. Another court, the International Court of Justice, is hearing a case brought by South Africa that accuses Israel of genocide.

Israel denies that its forces have carried out war crimes or genocide against Palestinians in the war in Gaza, which was precipitated by an attack by Hamas-led fighters in October 2023.

"The United States is working to dismantle the norms and institutions on which survivors of grave abuses rely," said Liz Evenson, international justice director at Human Rights Watch.

The group's former head, Kenneth Roth, called the US sanctions an attempt "to deter prosecution of Israeli war crimes and genocide in Gaza".

The United States, once one of the most active members of the Human Rights Council, has disengaged from it under President Donald Trump, alleging an anti-Israel bias.