Le Drian's challenging journey: Navigating the difficulties

Before packing his bags, Le Drian conveyed to visitors that he would visit Saudi Arabia before returning to Beirut in the middle of July.

He admitted to his "friends" in Lebanon that he did not imagine the situation so dire, acknowledging that he did not find any common ground among the political forces, not even regarding the dialogue that "everyone is called for, but no one wants to initiate."

This comes amid Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri's refusal to take on the task and Patriarch Beshara Al-Rahi's avoidance of getting "involved" in this matter.

The disappointment of the French mediator has reinforced the impression of the difficulty Paris sought to address.

There was a consensus that Le Drian showed readiness to deal realistically and give time to achieve the objectives, but he was also frank in his conviction that nothing fundamental would change soon.

However, one of the notable aspects of the meetings with the French envoy was his emphasis on France's exaggerated importance of the results of the recent session to elect a president.

Furthermore, France considered the 77 votes that did not go to Sleiman Frangieh as a blow against him, weakening his chances.

 

Additionally, Le Drian appeared to contradict Frangieh's allies' interpretation of the session's results, especially since numbers do not determine political matters, and the 18 deputies who also did not vote for the candidate of the aligned forces are not fixed in their position.

This approach had many interpretations, especially among Frangieh's opponents, who expressed their belief that France had backed down from its initiative and support for Frangieh.

This prompted Le Drian's visitors to question him about the matter directly, and his answer was an apparent denial.

But he followed it up with a query about "the way to bring Frangieh to the Baabda Palace."

This discussion occurred with a Hezbollah delegation, whom Le Drian met for about two hours. During the meeting, the delegation heard an explanation from their host about all the reasons that led the party to assert that there was "no retreat from Frangieh."

Le Drian will soon visit Saudi Arabia before returning to Beirut within two weeks

While Le Drian conveyed "his country's keenness on coordinating with Hezbollah and taking its concerns seriously," there was an initial discussion regarding the issue of dialogue, which Hezbollah affirmed "should not be conditional," and the details related to it will be "the subject of discussion with the French in the coming weeks."

However, sources denied any 'retreat,' they preferred to discuss what they called "French fatigue due to internal obstacles and the absence of any external cooperation with France regarding its initiative, specifically from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia."

The same sources revealed that during Le Drian's meeting with Frangieh, he did not hesitate to ask him about his opinion on the third option, as well as whether he was confident about the limits of the capabilities possessed by internal Lebanese forces (meaning Hezbollah and the Amal Movement) and whether they would both continue to support him until the end.

The sources stated that "Paris has not backed down. It adheres to its initiative based on its understanding of power balances and its desire to maintain an objective relationship with Hezbollah, which everyone acknowledges cannot impose a president without its consent.

However, Paris also realizes that it cannot reach a settlement without the approval of Western and Arab countries."

Moreover, the Saudi Ambassador to Beirut, Walid Al-Bukhari, described Le Drian's visit as "positive." He also told his visitors that Riyadh supports the French role "despite some disagreement in viewpoints that time will resolve."