Egyptian president Abdel Fattah El Sisi (left) greets resigned Lebanese prime minister Saad Hariri in the Egyptian Presidential Palace, Cairo, on November 21, 2017. Dalati Nohra / EPA
Egyptian president Abdel Fattah El Sisi (left) greets resigned Lebanese prime minister Saad Hariri in the Egyptian Presidential Palace, Cairo, on November 21, 2017. Dalati Nohra / EPA

Saad Hariri in Egypt as anticipation builds ahead of Lebanon return



Saad Hariri arrived in Egypt on Tuesday for talks with the Egyptian president as he prepares to return to Lebanon after resigning as prime minister earlier this month.

Mr Hariri had been in Paris since Saturday when he met French president Emmanuel Macron. He has said he would return to Lebanon by Wednesday for the country's Independence Day celebrations.

In his surprise resignation announced from Riyadh, Mr Hariri blamed Iran for its overbearing influence on his country and said he feared an assassination attempt.

Mr Hariri arrived at Cairo International Airport, where he was received by Egypt's health minister, the Lebanese ambassador to Cairo and Egypt's ambassador to Beirut, his press office said.

He went immediately to the presidential palace to meet Abdel Fattah El Sisi. A message on Mr Hariri's Twitter account said the meeting would be followed by a dinner in his honour.

Minutes after Mr Hariri landed in Cairo, small groups of supporters took to the streets of central Beirut in noisy convoys, honking, cheering and waving flags with the colours of the premier's Future Movement, AFP reported.

Mr Hariri's visit to Cairo follows two weeks of uncertainty after he announced his resignation. Saudi Arabia has denied accusations that it coerced him into standing down in response to the growing influence of Hizbollah in Lebanon. The Iran-funded militant group are the strongest military force in the country and have members in the coalition government.

Mr El Sisi has sought to defuse the tensions between Saudi Arabia, Hizbollah and its Iranian patrons.

Mr El Sisi's office said he received a phone call from Lebanese president Michel Aoun, a Hizbollah ally, in which they discussed "the importance of preserving Lebanon's stability and elevating Lebanon's national interests."

Speaking after talks in Paris on Saturday with Mr Macron, who is also seeking to broker a way out of the crisis, Mr Hariri said he would "make known my position" once back in Beirut.

Mr Aoun has refused to accept Mr Hariri's resignation while he remains abroad.

Mr Hariri - whose father, former prime minister Rafiq Hariri, was killed in a 2005 car bombing blamed on Hizbollah - took over last year as head of a shaky national unity government which includes the powerful Shiite movement.

Saudi Arabia's Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir meanwhile insisted from Madrid on Friday that "unless Hezbollah disarms and becomes a political party, Lebanon will be held hostage by Hizbollah and, by extension, Iran".

Mr Hariri's resignation was widely seen as an escalation of the battle for influence between Saudi Arabia and  Iran, which back opposing sides in the conflicts in Syria and Yemen.

Riyadh on Saturday recalled its ambassador to Berlin in protest at comments by Germany's Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel which were interpreted as a suggestion that Mr Hariri acted under Saudi orders.

France, which held mandate power over Lebanon for the first half of the 20th century, plans to bring together international support for the country, depending on how the situation develops.

The French president has also telephoned his counterparts in the US and Egypt, as well as the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to discuss "the situation in the Middle East".

He and Mr Trump "agreed on the need to work with allies to counter Hezbollah's and Iran's destabilising activities in the region", according to a White House statement Saturday.

Ahead of Mr Hariri's departure, Mr Aoun welcomed the trip to Paris, expressing hope it was the "start of a solution".

"If Mr Hariri speaks from France, I would consider that he speaks freely," Aoun said.

"But his resignation must be presented in Lebanon, and he will have to remain there until the formation of the new government."

* With reporting from Agence France-Presse, Associated Press and Reuters

NO OTHER LAND

Director: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal

Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham

Rating: 3.5/5

Defined benefit and defined contribution schemes explained

Defined Benefit Plan (DB)

A defined benefit plan is where the benefit is defined by a formula, typically length of service to and salary at date of leaving.

Defined Contribution Plan (DC) 

A defined contribution plan is where the benefit depends on the amount of money put into the plan for an employee, and how much investment return is earned on those contributions.

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3.35pm: Maiden Dh165,000 (Turf) 1,600m, Winner: Al Mukhtar Star, Adrie de Vries, Fawzi Nass.

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4.45pm: Handicap Dh185,000 (T) 1,200m, Winner: Speedy Move, Sean Kirrane, Satish Seemar.

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Global events: Much of the UK’s economic woes were blamed on “increased global uncertainty”, which can be interpreted as the economic impact of the Ukraine war and the uncertainty over Donald Trump’s tariffs.

 

Growth forecasts: Cut for 2025 from 2 per cent to 1 per cent. The OBR watchdog also estimated inflation will average 3.2 per cent this year

 

Welfare: Universal credit health element cut by 50 per cent and frozen for new claimants, building on cuts to the disability and incapacity bill set out earlier this month

 

Spending cuts: Overall day-to day-spending across government cut by £6.1bn in 2029-30 

 

Tax evasion: Steps to crack down on tax evasion to raise “£6.5bn per year” for the public purse

 

Defence: New high-tech weaponry, upgrading HM Naval Base in Portsmouth

 

Housing: Housebuilding to reach its highest in 40 years, with planning reforms helping generate an extra £3.4bn for public finances

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Children who witnessed blood bath want to help others

Aged just 11, Khulood Al Najjar’s daughter, Nora, bravely attempted to fight off Philip Spence. Her finger was injured when she put her hand in between the claw hammer and her mother’s head.

As a vital witness, she was forced to relive the ordeal by police who needed to identify the attacker and ensure he was found guilty.

Now aged 16, Nora has decided she wants to dedicate her career to helping other victims of crime.

“It was very horrible for her. She saw her mum, dying, just next to her eyes. But now she just wants to go forward,” said Khulood, speaking about how her eldest daughter was dealing with the trauma of the incident five years ago. “She is saying, 'mama, I want to be a lawyer, I want to help people achieve justice'.”

Khulood’s youngest daughter, Fatima, was seven at the time of the attack and attempted to help paramedics responding to the incident.

“Now she wants to be a maxillofacial doctor,” Khulood said. “She said to me ‘it is because a maxillofacial doctor returned your face, mama’. Now she wants to help people see themselves in the mirror again.”

Khulood’s son, Saeed, was nine in 2014 and slept through the attack. While he did not witness the trauma, this made it more difficult for him to understand what had happened. He has ambitions to become an engineer.

The White Lotus: Season three

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