French President Emmanuel Macron’s momentous visit to Beirut, which saw him posture as Lebanon’s savior after the disastrous blast, generated a range of sentiments, from astonishment and indignation to admiration and envy, depending on one’s vantage point. 

For Turkey, the French bid for a comeback in the region after failed interventions during the Arab Spring comes at a time of bilateral tensions, with Turkey challenging France in its former colonial lands. Had the port blast happened a decade ago, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan would have probably been the first leader to rush to Beirut to offer sympathy and support. But since the enthusiastic welcome he received in November 2010, Erdogan has become an “unwanted guest” for many of Lebanon’s political camps.

The massive Aug. 4 explosion at the Beirut port, caused by the unsafe storage of 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate, was widely seen as the collapse of Lebanon’s corrupt and sectarian political system, which Macron seized as an opportunity for brownie points in foreign policy. In a rather imperious tone, he called for “a new political order” to replace “a system captured by organized corruption” and urged Lebanese leaders for “clear answers” on reform, pledging to return Sept. 1.

Macron’s extraordinary posturing was too much even for the French as he seemed to stake a claim on shaping Lebanon’s future, almost as if picking up where the French mandate left it off in the 1940s. Responding to the criticism, Macron said he was acting out of friendship and in the interest of the Lebanese people because if France did not play its part, “other powers may interfere whether it be Iran, Saudi Arabia or Turkey.”