Hariri Returns to Beirut, Meets French Diplomat

Al-Mustaqbal Movement leader ex-PM Saad Hariri returned Monday evening to Beirut from a foreign trip.

Shortly after his return, Hariri held talks at the Center House with Jerome Bonnafont, the head of the Africa and Middle East department at the French foreign ministry, his office said.

Bonnafont was accompanied by French Ambassador to Lebanon Emmanuel Bonne.

Talks tackled “the situations in Lebanon and the region from all aspects,” Hariri's office said in a terse statement.

Bonnafont is in Lebanon for a 48-hour visit and he held separate talks on Monday with Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi and Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea.

He is scheduled to hold talks with other leaders in the coming hours.

Lebanon has been without a president since the term of Michel Suleiman ended in May 2014 and Hizbullah, MP Michel 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 Marada Movement chief MP Suleiman Franjieh for the presidency but his proposal was met with reservations from the country's main Christian parties as well as Hizbullah.

Education Minister Elias Bou Saab of the FPM announced Sunday that Hariri has officially decided to endorse Aoun's presidential nomination in a bid to break the presidential deadlock.

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.