Report: Hariri in Tripoli Friday to 'Reconnect with People'

Al-Mustaqbal Movement leader MP Saad Hariri is expected to visit the northern city of Tripoli on Friday, in a bid to resume contact with the people after last month's municipal elections that saw a list that he backed lose the polls.

“Hariri's (three-day) visit to Tripoli is not linked in any way to a specified political event, nor to the outcome of the municipal elections. It comes within the framework of reconnecting with the people,” As-Safir daily quoted Mustaqbal sources.

“It aims to explain Hariri's political orientations in terms of maintaining stability, and not to be dragged into sectarian strife, and find a solution for the constitutional vacuum and to mitigate the repercussions of the regional war on Lebanon in general and on Tripoli and the north in particular,” they said.

The sources added on condition of anonymity that “Hariri has no rivals at the parliamentary level in Tripoli, and that he has surpassed it towards reaching understandings on the national level contribute to strengthening stability.”

A Tripoli municipal list backed by Hariri, ex-PM Najib Miqati, former ministers Faisal Karami and Mohammed al-Safadi, Jamaa Islamiya, al-Ahbash and the Arab Democratic Party lost the May polls in the face of a list backed by resigned Justice Minister Ashraf Rifi.