Source: Naharnet.com

President Michel Aoun held a meeting with French
Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault and his accompanying delegation at
the Presidential Palace in Baabda, the state-run National News Agency
reported on Thursday. Ayrault who arrived Wednesday evening, left the Baabda Palace without making a statement, NNA added.

However, media reports said that Aoun had reiterated
during talks with the French diplomat “Lebanon’s keenness to improve and
develop the relations between the two countries.” For his part, Ayrault said: “France will continue to provide aid to Lebanon. Later, the FM held talks with Prime Minister Saad Hariri
after which he made a statement and said: “We will exert efforts that
Lebanon is kept away from the regional turmoil. “I present my support for Hariri who has a difficult
mission ahead. France will continue to provide financial aid to help
Lebanon with the file of the refugees.”

According to MTV channel, Ayrault suggested holding a
conference to support Lebanon next March, bearing a political character,
where part of the it will be dedicated to the issue of the displaced. The French minister will also meet with his Lebanese counterpart Jebran Bassil.

Upon his arrival at Beirut’s Rafik Hariri International
Airport, Ayrault expressed his “relief” over the election of a new
Lebanese president and “his joy over the presence of the president’s
portraits in the airport’s halls and rooms,” NNA said. Ayrault’s visit is the first by a senior French official since Aoun’s election as president on November 31.