Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri was on Friday preparing to leave Saudi Arabia for France, a move aimed at defusing political turmoil sparked by his shock resignation in Riyadh.

The Lebanese premier is due to meet French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris on Saturday after most of the Lebanese statesmen and political parties agreed on that Hariri was essentially being held hostage by the Saudi authorities.

The announcement of the visit came after Hariri met French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian in Riyadh Thursday, with Lebanon’s former colonial power Paris hoping to ease a crisis that has driven up tensions between regional titans Iran and Saudi Arabia.

Source: AFP