Lebanon PM Saad Hariri says he'll return within 2 days after mysterious departure
Hariri announced his resignation Nov. 4 and fled to Saudi Arabia, prompting claims he was forced out by Saudis
Lebanon's Prime Minister Saad Hariri, who plunged the country into crisis with his surprise resignation during a trip to Saudi Arabia, said in a tweet Tuesday that will return home in the next two days but that his family will remain in the kingdom.
Lebanon's foreign minister meanwhile said during a trip to Paris that his country may resort international law to determine Hariri's condition, suggesting he is being held against his will, if he doesn't return to Lebanon.
It was Hariri's first personal tweet since he announced his resignation on Nov. 4 in a pre-recorded message during a trip to Saudi Arabia. Previous tweets since his resignation consisted of official pictures and press releases.
"People, I am fine. And God willing I will come back in two days. Can we chill?" Hariri wrote.
His surprise resignation and then his scarce communication led many Lebanese to speculate that he was being held against his will and stripped of his phone despite Saudi denials. A live interview Sunday with a Lebanese TV station affiliated with his political party did little to dispel such fears.
On Tuesday, Hariri met with the Lebanese Maronite Patriarch, who visited Saudi Arabia, the first publicized meeting with a Lebanese official. But there were no TV cameras allowed into the meeting and only photos of the encounter were released.
President Michel Aoun has refused to accept Hariri's resignation and urged him to come home. Hezbollah and other rivals have suggested that Hariri's Saudi patrons forced him to resign to wreck the coalition government. The coalition government includes the Iran-backed Hezbollah.
Speaking from Paris, Lebanon's foreign minister said he hoped to resolve the "ambiguous" Hariri situation with Saudi Arabia. Gibran Bassil, who is on a European tour aimed at rallying support for his country's stability, said if Hariri doesn't return, then it will prove he is not free.
"We hope Lebanon doesn't have to resort to international law," Bassil said.
The resignation came amid mounting tensions between Saudi Arabia and Iran. Hariri lashed out at Hezbollah in his resignation speech and said he feared for his safety. Saudi Arabia has accused Hezbollah of declaring war on the kingdom by supporting Yemen's Houthi rebels, who fired a ballistic missile the night of Hariri's resignation that was intercepted near Riyadh.
Last week, Saudi Arabia called on its citizens to leave Lebanon "immediately," raising fears of further escalation.
Asked if he fears punitive actions from the kingdom, Bassil said any attack on Lebanon would affect the whole region.
"The first to be touched in this will be the Syrians based in Lebanon," Bassil said, referring to the more than one million refugees in Lebanon, equivalent to a fourth of the tiny country's population.
"They would move from a situation of being accepted and absorbed by the Lebanese society to a situation where they will no more tolerate their conditions," he said, without elaborating.
Bassil and his party have been pressing for the return of Syrian refugees now that the war is winding down. Hariri, and other Sunni politicians who oppose the Syrian government, have argued against repatriation before a peace deal is reached.
Bassil denied Lebanon had anything to do with "a missile launched from one country toward another country," apparently referring to the missile fired at Riyadh.
"There is no excuse for this exceptional and unnatural situation" with Saudi Arabia, he said.
In his interview, Hariri hinted he may reconsider his resignation if Hezbollah agreed to discuss staying out of regional affairs. Hariri, a dual Lebanese-Saudi national, has homes in Saudi Arabia, where his wife and children have been living for years.