Here's what I assume happened in the Malbrunot story. Macron told journalists about the possibility of sanctions against Lebanese leaders, sending the message to his Lebanese interlocutors through the media. But this message was not passed on directly to the Lebanese.
In that way, Macron could respect diplomatic civilities and avoid threatening his hosts. He also brought up in his press conference the matter of American sanctions, the main fear of the Lebanese political class, in that way underlining that sanctions may be an issue.
He then yelled at Malbrunot, who had simply published what Macron had told him on sanctioning the political class, which the president had, incidentally, also mentioned to @RymMomtaz for the Politico story.
In that way Macron appeared to be confirming that Malbrunot was on to something, while publicly appearing to be taking a contrary view on sanctions. In his press conference he had indeed seemed to deny sanctions, while keeping the door open to them in certain cases.
So Macron did what many presidents do when wanting to send a message: He used the media as a conduit, then turned around and denied it, albeit ambiguously. But Pompeo's mention of close cooperation with the French only underlined that sanctions remain an option.
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