Former and current colonial powers battling it out over the fate of the Middle East

Macron’s call for an arms embargo on Israel and his unequivocal defense of the UNIFIL corps in Lebanon which since October 7 has taken no action to stop Hezbollah’s unprovoked attacks on Israeli civilians, benefits only Iran. This follows a pattern of similar statements, seemed designed to whitewash Tehran’s colonialist hand in the region; previously the French President in calling for de-escalation of Israel’s offensive in South Lebanon, failed to mention Hizbullah, the catalyst of the latest tensions in the north of Israel. This is not the first time Macron seemed to be whitewashing Hizbullah’s role as an international terrorist organization. In 2020, he was forced into taking a harsher rhetorical position on Hizbullah after an international backlash to his comments at the UN. The same year, speaking at the UN General Assembly, Saudi Arabia’s King Salman called for disarming Hizbullah. Macron’s apparent interest in expanding the French role in resolving the crisis, however, goes beyond general comments. France banned Israel from participating in arms show, equating its role in the current escalation to that of Iran.
On October 13th, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian and French President Emmanuel Macron discussed the escalating crisis in southern Lebanon via a phone call.

Macron stressed “the responsibility of Iran to support a general de-escalation and to use its influence in this direction with the destabilizing actors that enjoy its support.” Iran-backed Hezbollah fighters are fighting Israeli troops in Lebanon. The Iranian presidential website said that in his conversation with Macron, Pezeshkian had called for an end to “crimes” in Lebanon and Gaza. Iran’s role in creating the crisis it is now pretending to try to solve went unchallenged by Macron. Rather, Macron portrayed Iran as a potential mediator and a benevolent power, which merely has leverage to improve the geopolitical situation. Iran, however, is not merely an incidental backer of Hizbullah; rather, Hizbullah was modeled after Iran’s IRGC Al Quds Brigade and its fealty lies with Iran, rather than with the Lebanese state.

More than a proxy, Hizbullah is a vassal for Iran’s colonial ambitions in the Middle East and beyond that. Recruitment of assets, criminal enterprises, such as drug trafficking, natural resources exploitation, and cultural hegemony such as the use of cultural centers for conversions of target demographics are all strategies employed by Hizbullah on Iran’s behalf from Africa to Latin America. Moreover, Hizbullah is not Iran’s only tool to advance its vision throughout the Middle East and well beyond that. Iran uses puppet regimes, such as the current government in Baghdad, to assert its control over Iraq and to impose exploitative economic arrangements.

Rather than extracting lessons from the blemished French colonial experience, Macron appears to be joining Iran for the ride. His diplomatic engagement with Tehran effectively puts violent terrorist groups such as Hamas and Hizbullah on the same political level as Israel. These efforts did not go unnoticed by the Islamic Republic. Iranian parliament speaker Mohammad Baqer Ghalibaf in his interview published in France’s Le Figaro on October 15th, was quoted as saying his country would be ready to “negotiate” with France to implement United Nations Resolution 1701. That resolution calls for southern Lebanon to be free of any troops or weapons other than those of the Lebanese state. Lebanese PM Najib Mikati said on Friday that he was “surprised” by the comments, calling them “a blatant interference in Lebanese affairs and an attempt to establish a rejected guardianship over Lebanon”. Mikati said such a negotiation was the prerogative of the Lebanese state and asked Lebanese Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib to summon the Chargé d’Affaires of the Iranian embassy in Beirut over Ghalibaf’s comments.

The resurgent French interest in Lebanon is not accidental. Lebanon used to be a colonial holding of France from the partition of the Ottoman Empire in 1920 until 1944, as the French Mandate of Lebanon. Today Paris treats the place as its colony. Macron’s willingness to bypass the Lebanese government and to negotiate directly with Iran while excluding Beirut underscores the French President’s attitude towards Lebanon as the French sphere of influence or a satellite rather than an independent state. In that, Macron has much in common with Ayatollah Khamenei, Iran’s Supreme Leader.

Iran’s right arm in the region, Hezbollah, controls much of Lebanon’s Shiite-majority areas, including parts of Beirut, southern Lebanon, and the eastern Bekaa Valley region. The Lebanese Army (LAF) is either unable or unwilling to counter the terrorist organization. Despite good reasons to believe that LAF is infiltrated or else coerced into transferring military packages to Hizbullah, France continues to provide the Lebanese army with arms, such as armored personnel carriers (APCs), ignoring the high likelihood that the French weapons are likely to end up in the hands of Hizbullah sooner or later. Hezbollah uses Lebanese army communications antennae and radar, is present on Lebanese vehicles patrolling southern Lebanon, and “employs” soldiers and officers to collect information and influence operations.

US experts conclude that “the danger of arming Lebanon is nothing new. In 2016, the Israeli government presented evidence that Hezbollah was using APCs supplied by the United States to the LAF. In recent years, Iran was supplying shipments of Russian-made weapons to Hezbollah, which was getting ready to invade Israel, just as Hamas did on October 7th, 2023. Hezbollah was amassing these weapons near the border in the area, allegedly controlled by the LAF and UN peacekeepers UNIFIL.

While calling for an embargo on Israel, France has supplied arms to regimes linked to war crimes. A two-year investigation by FRANCE24 has revealed that French manufacturer Cheddite sold an extensive amount of ammunition to Iranian authorities, which used it during the violent crackdown on the “Woman, Life, Freedom” protests in 2022. The investigation reveals that this ammunition remains accessible in Iran, despite the EU Council Regulation No 359/2011 which prohibits “the export, directly or indirectly, [of] equipment that could be used for internal repression” in Iran, including “firearms, ammunition, and related accessories”. Currently the Myanmar military is relying extensively on French-manufactured Avions de Transport Regional (ATR) aircraft to transport troops, arms and supplies for its combat operations, as it commits war crimes and crimes against humanity with impunity. Evidence obtained by the “Justice For Myanmar” organization revealed that French companies played a key role in supporting Myanmar’s military aviation fleet, despite international sanctions.

ATR supplied at least 10 aircrafts to Myanmar’s military. “Justice For Myanmar” cited leaked military expenditure documents from the financial year after the coup that revealed planned purchases of nearly $19 million worth of parts for the air force’s ATR aircraft fleet. Additionally, French company Sabena Technics was involved in repairing crucial components and providing parts, which kept the aircraft operational. These services were often routed through commercial airlines with military ties. The report criticizes these companies for failing to perform adequate due diligence to avoid supporting Myanmar’s military war crimes.

France should choose whether it wishes to stand with the international community against war crimes, authoritarianism, and hegemonic neo-colonialism, or whether it wishes to continue to continue and to replicate its colonial legacy, which already cost it diplomatic, political, and economic influence in West Africa – and will likely earn it nothing but infamy in the future annals of the Middle East.