Hariri going to Beirut as France tries to ease crisis
FRANCE/LEBANON: Lebanon’s political crisis has taken a new twist after the prime minister’s announcement he would return home for the country’s independence day just over two weeks after saying he had resigned.
Saad Hariri made the statement after lunching in Paris with French President Emmanuel Macron, who has taken a lead role in trying to ease tensions in the Middle East after the latest flareup.
France is concerned that its volatile former protectorate could become the setting for a showdown between Iran and Saudi Arabia.
Hariri, whose wealthy family has long combined business and politics, arrived in Paris from Saudi Arabia, where he announced his resignation on November 4, saying his life was under threat in Lebanon from the Iranian-backed Hezbollah movement.
The Hariri family has a house in Paris, where he lived between 2011 and 2014, and a flat that it lent rent-free to Jacques Chirac for eight years after he stood down as French president. Hariri is thought to be worth nearly NZ$2 billion.
In a sign of Macron’s determination to resume a key role in the Middle East, he followed his meeting with Hariri by calling President Trump, President Sisi of Egypt, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia and Antonio Guterres, the United Nations secretary-general.
‘‘We are helping to ease the tensions,’’ a French presidential adviser said.
In a tweet, Hariri denied claims he had been forced by the crown prince to step down and been detained in Riyadh against his will.
Speaking after his meeting with Macron, he said: ‘‘I will go to Beirut in the next few days. I will participate in celebrations for our independence day and it’s there that I will make known my position . . . after talking to President Michel Aoun.’’
Aoun has said that he would not accept Hariri’s resignation until he had been able to discuss the issue with the prime minister in person.
Although Beirut is awash with speculation that Hariri would be persuaded to stay on, he reiterated in Paris that ‘‘I have resigned’’.
Macron and Brigitte, his wife, lunched on Saturday with Hariri, Lara Bashir, his wife, and Houssam, his eldest son. The Hariris’ two youngest children have remained in Saudi Arabia, officially because they have school exams. There has been speculation their continued presence in Riyadh is seen by the crown prince as a way of continuing to exercise pressure on the Lebanese prime minister.
Hariri’s construction group – Oger – is in turmoil, largely because of a downturn in the Saudi economy where it has large interests. Hundreds of Oger’s French employees in Saudi Arabia say they have not been paid for months and the group’s French branch of Oger has reduced staff from 700 to 120. – The Times