Aoun Meets Hariri over Dinner at Center House
Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun held talks Wednesday evening with al-Mustaqbal movement chief ex-PM Saad Hariri at the Center House in downtown Beirut, in the first public meeting between the two leaders since at least five years.
Future TV said Aoun was accompanied by his son-in-law, Foreign Minister Jebran Bassil, and that talks were expected to continue over a dinner banquet.
For its part, Hariri's press office said the talks were also attended by the ex-PM's adviser former MP Ghattas Khoury.
The discussions tackled “the general political situations in the country and the latest regional developments,” Hariri's office said.
Hariri then threw a dinner banquet in Aoun's honor, the office added.
The meeting comes after Bassil attended on Saturday a rally commemorating the 10th anniversary of the assassination of Hariri's father, former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.
Al-Akhbar newspaper reported Wednesday that Bassil represented the FPM after al-Mustaqbal invited the movement as a positive step towards rapprochement between two sides.
Al-Mustaqbal is already engaged in talks with the FPM's top ally Hizbullah since December.
The representatives of the two parties are discussing ways to limit sectarian tension and possible ways to resolve the presidential crisis.
Bassil and ex-MP Khoury have held a series of contacts to set the stage for the meeting, the daily said.
G.K./Y.R.
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