The former leader of the Progressive Socialist Party, Walid Joumblatt, at Clemenceau, on May 22, 2026. (Credit: Mohammad Yassine/L’Orient-Le Jour)
French President Emmanuel Macron received Druze leader and former Progressive Socialist Party chief Walid Jumblatt on Friday at the Elysee Palace, where the two reviewed the latest developments in Lebanon and across the region, according to the official National News Agency.
The meeting came as implementation began on a framework agreement between Lebanon and Israel calling for a gradual withdrawal of Israeli forces, contingent on the deployment of the Lebanese Army and the dismantling of Hezbollah infrastructure in designated ‘’pilot areas’’. Units of the Lebanese army have deployed in parts of the central southern sector, including the villages of Srifa and Froun, where occupying forces were not present, and Zawtar al-Gharbieh, where residents have begun returning.
Throughout the first direct negotiations between Beirut and Tel Aviv in decades, France has been gradually sidelined from the Lebanese dossier, the result of a joint Israeli-American strategy aimed at marginalizing any French role, whether regarding the future of UNIFIL peacekeepers, the ceasefire monitoring mechanism or Lebanese-Israeli talks.
