Lebanon aid conference in Paris raised $800M: French foreign minister

By Nur Asena Erturk and Necva Tastan Sevinc

ANKARA / ISTANBUL (AA) - The international community raised over $800 million (€740 million) to fund humanitarian aid in Lebanon, the French foreign minister said Thursday.

“We mobilized more than $800 million, a collective commitment to meet the needs identified by the United Nations,” Jean-Noel Barrot told a news conference following the international conference for Lebanon held in Paris.

Barrot said Lebanon was at a “war” it did not choose.

Aid to Lebanon’s security forces adds up to the humanitarian aid, the minister said and announced another financial support worth $200 million.

Barrot, in this context, thanked the “American partners” for their total contribution of $300 million.

He reiterated his call for a cease-fire and stressed that Israel’s security would be better ensured via “diplomacy and negotiation instead of the use of force.”

Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati, for his part, thanked France for organizing the conference and also renewed his call for a cease-fire.

He also welcomed the international community’s support for the deployment of the Lebanese army in the southern part of the country.

Mikati thus announced that a particular conference would be held soon “so that the Lebanese army can assume its duties.”

- French president’s ‘regrets’

Earlier in the opening of the conference, French President Emmanuel Macron said he regrets Israel's continued attacks in Lebanon, expressing disappointment that the call for a 21-day pause in hostilities, made jointly with US President Joe Biden, has not been considered yet.

“I regret that Israel continues its military operations in southern Lebanon, in Beirut, and elsewhere, and that the number of civilian victims continues to grow," Macron explained.

He noted that he regrets "the appeal President Biden and ... (he) made on September 25 for a 21-day pause in hostilities has not yet been heeded.”

The French president also announced that "once a cease-fire is negotiated, France will accompany the redeployment of the Lebanese armed forces in the south, supporting it through UNIFIL (UN peacekeeping mission in Lebanon) and contributing to the army's equipment.”

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, for his part, addressed the conference in a video message, and urged “friends of Lebanon to support the ongoing humanitarian response efforts, including by providing rapid funding of the Lebanon Flash Appeal.”

He warned against the “growing threat of a major conflagration between Israel and Iran that would upend the entire region,” and reiterated his call for a cease-fire in Lebanon and Gaza.

Mikati noted that a cease-fire could “have an immediate impact of calming tensions” in southern Lebanon.

“The loss of Lebanese civilian lives and destruction could have been avoided if Israel had agreed to endorse the joint statement issued on September 25th, which was led by US and France,” the Lebanese premier deplored.

Israel has mounted a huge air campaign in Lebanon since last month against what it says are Hezbollah targets in an escalation from a year of cross-border warfare between Israel and the group since the start of Israel’s brutal offensive on Gaza.

At least 2,574 people have been killed and more than 12,000 injured in Israeli attacks since October last year, according to Lebanese health authorities.

Israel expanded the conflict on Oct. 1 this year by launching a ground assault into southern Lebanon.