Paris Expected to Mediate between Aoun and Hariri

France will directly intervene in the beginning of the year in a bid to resolve the ongoing dispute between President Michel Aoun and PM-designate Saad Hariri over some ministerial portfolios, media reports said.

Next month might witness “French visits to Beirut aimed at pressing for resolving this dispute through proposals specifically focused on the justice portfolio,” informed sources told the Nidaa al-Watan newspaper in remarks published Monday.

The French will push for allocating the portfolio to “a specialist figure who is not loyal to any political party in light of the essential role that will be played by the justice ministry in the coming period,” the sources said.