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France Says Hariri, Family Will Be Off To Paris within Days

France Says Hariri, Family Will Be Off To Paris within Days
folder_openLebanon access_time6 years ago
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Local Editor

Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri and his family will within days travel to France from Saudi Arabia upon the invitation of French President Emmanuel Macron, the Elysee Palace said Wednesday, in a possible easing of the 12-day crisis over the circumstances surrounding Hariri's shock resignation.

France Says Hariri, Family Will Be Off To Paris within Days

"After speaking with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman and the Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri, the president has invited Hariri and his family to France," Reuters quoted a source inside the French presidential palace as saying.

The source added that Hariri will arrive in France "in the coming days" with his family.

In a speech after the news broke, Macron said that he had invited Hariri for "a few days in Paris with his family," as an act of friendship. He added that the invitation was not an offer of political exile for Hariri.

"No, not at all," Macron told reporters in the German city of Bonn when asked if he was handing Hariri exile.

"I hope that Lebanon will be stable, and that political choices should be in accordance with institutional rule."

Hariri spent three years between Riyadh and Paris while in exile due to security fears after his Cabinet collapsed in 2011. He returned to Lebanon in 2014. Hariri formed his Cabinet last December as part of a political settlement that also led to General Michel Aoun's election as president on Oct. 31 last year.

"We need a strong Lebanon with its territorial integrity respected. We need leaders who are free to make their own choices and speak freely," Macron said.

Earlier in the day, Macron, in a statement via a spokesman, stressed that Hariri should be able to return to Lebanon to confirm, or rescind, his resignation.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team

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