MP Aoun Says President's Riyadh Trip to Open 'New Chapter' in Ties with Gulf

MP Alain Aoun of the Change and Reform bloc has stressed the keenness of President Michel Aoun and the Free Patriotic Movement on restoring normal ties with the Arab Gulf countries, noting that the president's upcoming visit to Riyadh will achieve this goal.

“President Michel Aoun's trip to Saudi Arabia will launch a new chapter in the Lebanese-Saudi relations and will pave the way for a new phase between the two brotherly countries, and subsequently between Lebanon and the rest of the Gulf states,” Aoun told the Kuwaiti al-Anbaa newspaper in remarks published Sunday.

“This visit is important because it will return ties to their normal and historic state, which will happen gradually through ending the Saudi and Gulf boycott of Lebanon and halting all the negative measures against it, after the relations between Beirut and the Gulf states deteriorated in recent years due to the regional conflict,” Aoun added.

The MP also said that he expects that Aoun's visit to Saudi Arabia and the other Gulf and Arab countries will revive the historic relations “at all levels.”