Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri arrived in France on Saturday, two weeks after his shocking resignation sparked speculation that he was being held hostage in Saudi Arabia.
Hariri has not returned to Lebanon since then, but he could go back by Wednesday, according to the Lebanese President’s office.
He called President Michel Aoun and told him he will attend Lebanon Independence Day events, the Lebanese President’s office tweeted Saturday.
Hariri’s resignation announcement plunged Lebanon into a political crisis and stoked fears of conflict between the Saudi-backed faction of the country’s government and Hezbollah, a powerful Iranian-backed Shia militant group whose political wing is the most powerful bloc in Lebanon’s fractured coalition government.
Hariri will meet with Macron at the Elysee Palace on Saturday, a spokesman for the French President told CNN. French officials said they hope the visit will help end the political crisis by showing Hariri is free to travel. Macron said he expected him to return to Beirut in the “coming days, weeks.”
Aoun alleged Hariri was being “held captive” in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday.
Since he quit, Hariri has held several meetings with senior European and Arab officials, including Abu Dhabi’s crown prince, but there have been no public statements about them.
Hariri tweeted Friday that his stay in Saudi Arabia had been to “conduct discussions over the future situation in Lebanon” and dismissed any stories about him leaving or staying in the kingdom.
“To say that I am held up in Saudi Arabia and not allowed to leave the country is a lie. I am on the way to the airport,” he said Friday.
Five days after Hariri resigned, Macron made an unscheduled trip to Riyadh to meet with Hariri and Saudi officials.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said Hariri had been invited to France and was living in ” Saudi Arabia by his own will and can leave whenever he wants.”
