President Emmanuel Macron embarked on a high-stakes, headline-grabbing tour in the Middle East this week that has prompted claims France is seeking to re-activate its once-mighty “Arab policy”. Just as France relived the trauma of the al Qaeda-inspired Charlie Hebdo 2015 attack with the opening of the trial of alleged accomplices in Paris, Mr Macron descended on Lebanon’s capital, Beirut. In his second visit in a month following the gigantic explosion that killed 190 and destroyed half the city, he wrested a promise from Lebanon’s discredited political class to conduct lightning reforms or face a funding drought or, worse, targeted sanctions. The 42-year-old then went on to pay a whirlwind, three-hour visit to Iraq, where he urged the battle-scarred country to assert its “sovereignty” in the face of US-Iran tensions and an increasingly intrusive Turkey. The back-to-back visits prompted Le Parisien to headline: “Macron kick starts France’s Arab policy.”
