France, US pledge close to $200 million worth of emergency aid for Lebanon

French President Emmanuel Macron pledged on Wednesday nearly €100 million ($118.54 million) worth of additional emergency aid for Lebanon, as well as 500,000 doses of Covid-19 vaccines for the country during a UN-backed donor conference. The US will provide nearly $100 million in additional aid to Lebanon, President Joe Biden announced.

One year since an explosion ripped through the capital's port and plunged Lebanon further into economic crisis, its politicians have yet to form a government capable of rebuilding the country, despite French and international pressure.

"Lebanese leaders seem to bet on a stalling strategy, which I regret and I think is a historic and moral failure," Macron said in opening remarks as host of a UN-backed international donors' conference that aims to raise at least $350 million.

"There will be no blank cheque for the Lebanese political system. Because it is they who, since the start of the crisis but also before that, are failing."

Later in the day, Biden also promised nearly $100 million in additional aid for Lebanon.

"But no amount of outside assistance will ever be enough if Lebanon's leaders do not commit to do the hard but necessary work of reforming the economy and combating corruption," warned the US leader as he took part in the donors’ conference.

Sanctions framework ‘ready to be used’

France has led international efforts to lift its former colony out of the crisis. Macron has visited Beirut twice since the port blast, raised emergency aid and imposed travel bans on some senior Lebanese officials in his quest for a reform package.

He has also persuaded the European Union to agree on a sanctions framework that is ready to be used.

But his initiatives have so far been in vain.

About 40 heads of state and governments, diplomats and heads of international organisations are taking part in the conference, according to Macron's office. Participants include Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, King Abdullah II of Jordan and the European Council’s President Charles Michel.

Last year's conference in the wake of the blast raised about $280 million, with the emergency aid being kept away from politicians and channelled through NGOs and aid groups.

The new aid will be unconditional, Macron's office said, but about $11 billion raised in 2018 remains locked away and conditional on a series of reforms.

According to the UN, over half of Lebanese people now live in poverty, one in three Lebanese suffer from food insecurity and nearly 4 million people are at risk of not being able to access safe water.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP, REUTERS)