Emmanuel Macron has opened a conference in Paris in support of Lebanon, with the twin aims of raising about £300m in funds to address the mounting humanitarian crisis caused by Israeli bombing and finding a way to fill the security vacuum created by the chronic weakness of the Lebanese state.

Most observers say Macron, the president of France, which has historical ties to Lebanon, is likely to have success with his first task, partly owing to donations expected to come from Sunni-majority Gulf states. France hopes this will reflect a revived interest in Lebanon that these states had largely neglected, leaving space open for the expansion of the Shia group Hezbollah in recent years.

But the second goal of edging towards a ceasefire remains near impossible since the US appears to have decided to give its support to Israel’s offensive, so long as Washington regards it as confined to causing irreversible damage to the Iranian-backed Hezbollah.

Proposals to strengthen the Lebanese armed forces and the mandate of the UN peacekeeping force Unifil are also likely to be aired.

Antony Blinken, the US secretary of state, is one of many top diplomats to miss the Paris meeting, reflecting a fissure between Paris and the US on how to handle Israel and the Lebanon crisis. Blinken, currently in Qatar, plans to hold a meeting with Arab leaders in London on Friday.

The UK is represented by the Middle East minister, Hamish Falconer, as the foreign secretary, David Lammy, is at the Commonwealth summit in Samoa.

Hezbollah, with most of its senior leadership killed by Israel, has said it will not talk about its political or military strategy until Israel implements a ceasefire. Israel has said it will continue to weaken Hezbollah both in Beirut and south of the Litani River.

France has not put a figure on the amount it hopes to raise, but the UN has said it needs more than $400m (£310m). Ahead of the conference, Germany announced an extra $62m in humanitarian aid.

An alliance of 150 NGOs on the eve of the conference said a ceasefire was a moral imperative. Since the escalation of hostilities a year ago more than 2,500 people in Lebanon have been killed and nearly 12,000 injured, according to the UN.

French efforts to secure a ceasefire rest on Hezbollah clearly stating it is willing to end its war before a ceasefire is agreed in Gaza. Conflicting messages have emerged from Hezbollah about whether it is willing to sever the link between the two theatres of war, but France believes if the US were to put pressure on Israel to agree a ceasefire, an agreement could be reached.

That in turn might provide the space to secure a majority in the Lebanese parliament to elect a new president, ending a two-year impasse caused by divisions largely on ethnic grounds.

France is also hoping an agreement can be reached in principle at the conference to do more to fund, expand and train the official Lebanese armed forces.

Israel believes UN resolution 1701, passed in 2006, has never been fully implemented partly owing to the failure of Uniful to take up a key part of its mandate that also calls on Hezbollah to pull back north of the Litani, about 30km (20 miles) from the border with Israel. The US envoy Amos Hochstein said on Monday in Beirut that a new, more assertive “1701+” mandate was necessary.

Italy, one of the lead contributors to Unifil, has proposed the creation of a peacekeeping buffer with more men and more power and different rules of engagement between the border with Israel and the Litani. It also supports the training of troops of the regular Lebanese army.

Israel is insisting on the right to maintain access to Lebanese airspace, something no government in Beirut is likely to accept.

(Source: The Guardian)