The Daily Star –– BEIRUT: Foreign Minister Nassif Hitti plans to resign from his position over perceived diminished role and government incompetence, political sources said Sunday. The sources said Hitti could submit his resignation as early as Monday, adding that contacts had already started between political parties that back the government on choosing a successor. Hitti, who became foreign minister in January as part of Prime Minister Hassan Diab’s government, was reportedly unhappy of the PM’s criticism of French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian, the sources said. Diab last week said Le Drian’s visit to Lebanon – the first official visit by a high-ranking European official since the government’s formation – “did not bring anything new,” and that he was not properly informed on the size of reforms implemented by the government.

On Thursday, Diab changed his tone towards the French, praising the “profound Lebanese-French relations rooted in history and in common values,” and was studying an offer from France to extend technical assistance at the financial level to Lebanon The sources said Hitti’s decision to resign was also prompted by the fact that a top security official was chosen to visit two Gulf countries to appeal for financial and economic support, undermining his position as foreign minister. Head of General Security Maj. Gen. Abbas Ibrahim was assigned by President Michel Aoun in July to visit Kuwait and Qatar on an aid mission, where he delivered a message from Aoun.The foreign minister’s resignation is also a result of the poor performance of the government, the sources said, as Lebanon grapples with its worst economic crisis in decades, during which the national currency lost more than 80 percent of its value, dragging the country into a period of hyperinflation with more than 50 percent of the population being plunged into poverty.