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Lebanon Accuses Saudi Arabia of Holding its PM Hostage

Source: reuters.com


France said on Wednesday that Lebanese Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri, who Lebanon’s president says is being held hostage by Saudi Arabia, will visit France with his family in coming days.


Hariri travelled to Riyadh on Nov. 3 before abruptly resigning in a televised statement a day later. 


He has stayed in Riyadh and top Lebanese officials and senior politicians close to Hariri have told Reuters he was forced to quit.


Hariri and Saudi Arabia have both denied he is being held in Riyadh or was coerced to resign. Hariri has said he will return to Lebanon in the next few days to formally submit his resignation.


The crisis has thrust Lebanon onto the frontline of a Middle East contest for power pitting a Saudi-led bloc against Iran and its allies, including the Lebanese Shi‘ite group Hezbollah.


French President Emmanuel Macron said in a statement that he had invited Hariri to France after speaking to him and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.


The invitation is to visit for a few days and is not an offer of political exile, Macron said, speaking in Germany.


“We will not accept (Hariri) remaining a hostage whose reason for detention we do not know,” Lebanese President Michel Aoun said in a statement.

Lebanese President Michel Aoun meets with Lebanese journalists and media executives at the presidential palace in Baabda, Lebanon, November 15, 2017.


Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil, the head of Aoun’s political party, said the situation was “not normal” but that Beirut wanted “good relations” with Riyadh.


Aoun has said he will not accept Hariri’s resignation until he returns to Lebanon to formally tender it and explain his reasons, which Hariri has said he will do in the coming days.


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