French official discussed Lebanese presidency on KSA visit

French presidential adviser for near eastern affairs Patrick Durel visited Saudi Arabia on Tuesday to continue discussions over the file of Lebanon’s presidential vacuum, LBCI television reported.

Durel has recently met in Paris with Marada Movement chief Suleiman Franjieh – the presidential candidate of Hezbollah and the Amal Movement.

Conflicting reports have emerged Saturday over the outcome of the visit.

Annahar newspaper quoted unnamed sources as saying that Paris would tell Franjieh of “the need to withdraw from the race to the presidential palace in order to facilitate the electoral process, seeing as the election of a partisan president is almost impossible.”

Informed sources meanwhile told Asharq al-Awsat newspaper that Paris invited Franjieh to France to agree with him over “the public pledges that he can offer over key issues, such as how to deal with the premier, the Syrian refugees, border control, the political-economic-financial reform agenda, and the pledges he can obtain from Hezbollah and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad over the issues of refugees and border demarcation.”

And quoting Hezbollah and Amal Movement sources, al-Joumhouria newspaper said “the French want to speed up the election of a president,” adding that “it is not ruled out that Lebanon might have a new president right before or just after the (Easter and Fitr) holidays.”