Macron hosts Lebanon and Jordan leaders in Paris to plug security gap before UN peacekeepers withdraw

From the Newshound archive · first published 19 September 2026.

French President Emmanuel Macron is to meet Lebanese President Joseph Aoun and Jordan's King Abdullah in Paris on Thursday to prepare the ground for a donor conference to fund Lebanon's cash-strapped army. European and Arab military chiefs are also gathering to assess what force could replace the UN peacekeeping mission UNIFIL, whose mandate expires at the end of the year. The talks come as a June framework deal — under which Israel would withdraw from southern Lebanon in exchange for Hezbollah's disarmament — has stalled.

UNIFIL has around 7,500 personnel, but neither the US nor Israel has signalled support for extending its mandate beyond January.

France and Italy are discussing a non-UN multinational mission focused on training and equipping the Lebanese Armed Forces as an alternative.

Lebanon's army is caught between Israeli forces occupying much of the south and Hezbollah, which has refused all calls to surrender its weapons.