Michel Abou Najm - "Asharq Al awsat"

As questions swirl around what might come out of the upcoming meeting on Lebanon between the US and French presidents during French President Emmanuel Macron's 3-day state visit to Washington, starting November 29 , a high-level diplomatic source in Paris said that France is still the country that continues to push the international community to pay attention to the Lebanese file, wondering who can play this role if Paris stops playing it.

Macron, with the diplomatic cell of the French presidential palace, in addition to his Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna and the French ambassador to Beirut Anne Grillo, are working on several levels to advance the Lebanese presidential file, blocked at the House of Representatives for about a month, in order to avoid exacerbating the consequences of the vacuum in Lebanon's highest constitutional institution. Paris has become an obligatory stop for Lebanese presidential consultations, and the last to go there was the leader of the Free Patriotic Movement, MP Gebran Bassil.

There is a widespread belief that Paris is acting on behalf of the European Union, with American approval and understanding with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. In addition, Paris is in contact with all parties inside Lebanon and abroad, including Hezbollah and Iran.

Despite the external extensions affecting the Lebanese presidential elections and the general political situation in Lebanon, the French diplomatic source believes that the responsibility lies first and foremost with the Lebanese political class to reach a presidential agreement, like its agreement on the file of the demarcation of the maritime border between Lebanon and Israel with the American mediation, the French contribution and the Iranian acceptance. Paris called the deal "historic".