Le Pen and Aoun hold ‘fruitful’ talks

Far-right leader’s first meeting with a foreign head

BEIRUT // France’s far- right leader and presidential candidate Marine Le Pen met Lebanese president Michel Aoun in Beirut yesterday – her first meeting with a foreign head of state. “We discussed the long and fruitful friendship between our two countries,” the Front National leader said after her 30- minute meeting with Mr Aoun, the Middle East’s only Christian president.

Ms Le Pen, who is leading polls for the first round of France’s presidential election on April 23, said they also discussed the refugee crisis in Lebanon, where more than one million Syrians live, making up one in four of the Lebanese population. “We raised the concerns we share over the very serious refugee crisis,” she said.

“These difficulties are being overcome by the courage and generosity of Lebanon but this cannot go on forever.” The FN leader, whose party has an anti-immigrant stance, called on Sunday for the international community to step up humanitarian aid to keep the refugees in Lebanon. Ms Le Pen also met Lebanese prime minister Saad Hariri, a Sunni Muslim, who cautioned against associating his religion with the terrorist attacks of the extremists who have repeatedly targeted France.

“The worst mistake would be the amalgam between Islam and Muslims on one hand and terrorism on the other hand,” Mr Hariri said. Today, Ms Le Pen will meet Lebanon’s grand mufti, the leader of its Sunni community, the Maronite Christian patriarch and rightist Christian party leader Samir Geagea.

Shunned by European leaders over her party’s stance on immigration and anti-EU message, Mr Le Pen’s meeting with Mr Aoun aims to boost her international credibility.