the situation in Lebanon at the heart of the concerns of the UN General Assembly

The escalation between Israel and Lebanon is on the agenda for the week of discussions, as well as the war in Ukraine and the conflict in Sudan. Emmanuel Macron will try to once again make France’s voice resound within the concert of nations.

More than 500 dead, including 50 children: the Israeli strikes targeting Hezbollah in southern and eastern Lebanon and their very heavy human toll will obviously weigh on the UN General Assembly. The annual grand mass of world diplomacy begins on Tuesday, September 24 in the afternoon in New York. More than 130 heads of state and government will take turns at the podium until next Monday. The war in Ukraine, the ongoing conflict in Sudan and especially the spiral of violence in the Middle East, with the extension of the conflict to Lebanon, will be at the heart of the debates.

Neither the international community nor the major powers seem capable of stemming the spiral of violence. Strong words will certainly be spoken in the coming days, but with what effectiveness? The world is at risk of a third world war, the head of the UN keeps repeating. António Guterres says “very seriously worried“to see Lebanon become “another Gaza”. “We are on the brink of total war”adds the head of European diplomacy Josep Borrell. France is calling for an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council, like Egypt, which, along with Jordan, is pointing out the risk of “global regional war”“.

Some speeches will carry more weight than others. What words will Massoud Pezeshkian, the new Iranian president, choose on Tuesday, who assures that he does not want to destabilize the region and says he is ready to reopen nuclear talks? Should we believe him, the powerful ally of Hezbollah? And above all, what will Joe Biden say, who is preparing to participate in his last major UN meeting? The American president is working, he says, on a de-escalation, but how can he influence the Israeli ally without resorting to the main lever, the delivery of weapons? Joe Biden has so far refused to do so and the proximity of the American election makes a change of tack very unlikely.

In this context, Emmanuel Macron will try to make a singular voice heard. The French president is expected in New York on Tuesday at the end of the day and will speak on Wednesday at the podium. Emmanuel Macron seems weakened by weeks of political crisis. France certainly has a government, but it is fragile, at the mercy of a motion of censure. And if the president does not risk impeachment, he no longer has the means for his hyper-presidency, which does not escape his foreign counterparts.

France is also losing influence, driven out of the Sahel, and is struggling to rebuild its relationship with Africa, which was a pillar of its diplomatic influence. In the Middle East, it is no longer the privileged interlocutor of Arab countries. In Europe, its leadership alongside Germany is contested, having failed to take the measure of the Russian threat from the start of the war in Ukraine.

A dark picture of the erasure of France that Emmanuel Macron intends to contradict. He will multiply the interviews to, assures the Élysée, “recreate the link”of the “points of convergence” in a world “fracture”. Last week he promised a “diplomatic path” to the Lebanese people hit by the return of war. This weekend, the French president called for “rethinking our relationship with Russia” and pleaded for “a new international order”The UN platform will give him the opportunity to explain himself and show that France can still exist.