Report: Hariri to Kick Off Trip to Ankara, Russia and Saudi Arabia

Al-Mustaqbal Movement chief ex-PM Saad Hariri is scheduled to leave Beirut and kick off a trip that will include Saudi Arabia, As Safir daily reported on Saturday.

Hariri's trip comes after extensive meetings with various political figures in an attempt to find a solution for the over two-year vacuum at the top state Christian post.

His trip, that will include Saudi Arabia, is expected to fall in the same context and focus on the thorny file of the presidency.

Al-Liwaa daily said that Hariri will visit Saudi Arabia and Ankara and that a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin has been scheduled to take place on Tuesday.

Hariri had held on Friday a much-anticipated meeting with Free Patriotic Movement founder MP Michel Aoun in Rabieh, shortly after he held talks in Maarab with Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea.

Following talks with Hariri earlier in the day, Geagea had announced that the “the gap has started to narrow” regarding the presidential file.

Since Monday, Hariri has met with Marada Movement chief MP Suleiman Franjieh, Kataeb Party leader MP Sami Gemayel, Progressive Socialist Party chief MP Walid Jumblat and Speaker Nabih Berri.

The ex-PM's return to Lebanon on Saturday has triggered a flurry of rumors and media reports about a possible presidential settlement and the possibility that he has finally decided to endorse Aoun for the presidency in a bid to break the deadlock.

Lebanon has been without a president since the term of Michel Suleiman ended in May 2014 and Hizbullah, Aoun's Change and Reform bloc and some of their allies have been boycotting the parliament's electoral sessions, stripping them of the needed quorum.

Hariri, who is close to Saudi Arabia, launched an initiative in late 2015 to nominate Franjieh for the presidency but his proposal was met with reservations from the country's main Christian parties as well as Hizbullah.

Hariri's move prompted Geagea to endorse the nomination of Aoun, his long-time Christian rival, after months of political rapprochement talks between their two parties.

The supporters of Aoun's presidential bid argue that he is more eligible than Franjieh to become president due to the size of his parliamentary bloc and his bigger influence in the Christian community.