Report: Govt File ‘Hinges’ on Hariri’s Foreign Tour

Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri, currently on a visit to Abu Dhabi, reportedly plans to head to Paris in the next two days for talks with French President Emmanuel Macron on the latest government formation developments in Lebanon, media reports said Monday.

Hariri, who also met the Egyptian President in Cairo last week, will highlight Macron on his internal and foreign contacts on the file, and on his talks with President Michel Aoun.

He is expected to return back to Beirut before the week’s end.

Well-informed sources at the Center House told al-Joumhouria that “the contacts that concern the Lebanese and are reflected in the course of their daily lives and on the formation of a government are now governed by the results of the visit.”

They said it gains major importance “specifically when it is completed with Hariri’s move to France for high-level French diplomatic and political levels, even with the Elysee to meet with Macron.”

On the other hand, Baabda sources told the daily “it has become necessary to wait for Hariri's return to Beirut to know the outcome of his consultations on more than one regional and international level to resume discussion on the formation.”

The daily learned that Hariri could return to Beirut not later than Saturday to mark the assassination anniversary of his father the late PM Rafik Hariri.