Reuters: Lebanon’s president said on Thursday he hoped the crisis over Saad al-Hariri’s resignation as prime minister would end soon, with Hariri due to leave Saudi Arabia for France this weekend.

Hariri quit in a broadcast from Saudi Arabia on Nov. 4, railing against Riyadh’s bitter foe Iran and its Lebanese ally Hezbollah.

The shock resignation thrust Lebanon into both a domestic political crisis and the Middle East’s overarching rivalry that pits Saudi Arabia and its allies against a bloc led by Iran.

A Elysee Palace source said Hariri would fly to Paris on Saturday and meet President Emmanuel Macron the same day.

French officials said they did not know how long Hariri would stay before returning to Beirut but hoped his trip would help soothe the crisis by demonstrating he was not being held in Saudi Arabia, as Lebanon’s President Michel Aoun has said >>>