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France's Le Pen to meet leaders in Lebanon

February 17, 2017 at 9:50 pm

National Front leader Marine Le Pen [Global Panorama/Flickr]

France’s far-right National Front leader Marine Le Pen is due to visit Lebanon this weekend and will meet Prime Minister Saad Al-Hariri and President Michel Aoun on Monday, officials said.

Le Pen’s visit, confirmed to Reuters by a member of her entourage, will come nine weeks from a French election in which she is among the leading candidates competing with conservative Francois Fillon for the presidency.

Many Lebanese fled to France, Lebanon’s former colonial power, during their country’s 1975-1990 civil war and became French citizens. A Lebanese source said Le Pen’s visit may be aimed partly at winning their votes ahead of the election.

A spokeswoman for Al-Hariri said a meeting would take place on Monday. The Le Pen official said she would also meet Aoun. Sources in Aoun’s office confirmed the meeting.

Both Aoun and Al-Hariri have close ties to France and have both lived there for many years. Al-Hariri, still has a home there.

Aoun lived in exile in Paris after being forced from Lebanon at the end of the civil war by the Syrian army. During his time in exile, Aoun built strong ties with French politicians while campaigning against Syria’s military domination of Lebanon.