“A small group of politicians is about to overthrow their country and its people,” said a furious Macron as he taught the Lebanese politicians who let their special interests take precedence over Lebanon, a collective betrayal, as he called it.
But it was against Shia Muslim Hezbollah that he directed his most outspoken criticism. Hezbollah, which together with Shia Muslim Amal sabotaged attempts to form a technocrat government by demanding continued control of the important finance ministry.
“Hezbollah cannot be both an army against Israel, a militia against civilians in Syria and at the same time expect to be treated as a respectable political party,” Macron said.
Many observers say that Iran is in control of Hezbollah’s actions. It is in Lebanon that Iran can retaliate against the Trump administration’s attempt to crush the Iranian economy, by letting its allies sabotage Lebanon’s attempts to form a government.
Iran is suffering from US sanctions and feels threatened by the anti-Iranian alliance among the Gulf states, which now also includes Israel. Therefore, analysts fear that Iran will delay attempts to save Lebanon until after the US election on November 3.
