Self-exiled ex-Lebanese PM confirms he’ll return home soon

Ex-Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri confirmed during a visit to Paris where he was hosted by French President Emmanuel Macron that he will return home in the coming days.

Hariri who was in France for his first visit outside of Saudi Arabia since announcing his resignation particularly said he will be home to join his compatriots to mark Lebanon’s Independence Day on Wednesday, November 22.

“I will return to Beirut in the coming days,” Hariri said in Paris, where he met with Macron on Saturday in a bid to solve the political turmoil surrounding his sudden resignation as prime minister two weeks ago.

“I will participate in the celebrations for our independence and it is there that I will make known my position on all the issues”, he said.

Read also: I am free in Saudi, will return home very soon, ex-Lebanese PM says

Earlier on Saturday, Lebanese President Michel Aoun and Speaker of Parliament Nabih Berri both posted statements saying Hariri would return for the occasion.

A week ago, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of the Hezbollah movement has accused Saudi Arabia of stoking war in Lebanon by forcing the resignation of the country’s Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri and detaining him in Riyadh.

Nasrallah said the move by Saudi had declared war on Lebanon and his Iran-backed group, while also revealing that Saudi is holding Hariri against his will, saying it wished for him to have “all his freedom of movement and be fully able to play the essential role that is his in Lebanon”.

Those claims where however denied by Hariri moments after he arrived Saudi Arabia as he warned that his country was at risk of Gulf Arab sanctions because of the Shi‘ite group Hezbollah’s regional meddling

 

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