France, US Ambassadors to Lebanon Travel to KSA to 'Discuss Situation'
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In an unusual step, the French and the United States Ambassadors to Lebanon will visit Riyadh on Thursday to "discuss the gravity of the situation in Lebanon."
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French Ambassador to Lebanon Anne Grillo and United States Ambassador to Lebanon Dorothy Shea.
The United States and French Ambassadors to Lebanon, Dorothy Shea and Anne Grillo, will travel to Saudi Arabia for meetings with Saudi Arabian officials in an unusual step: "to look into pressuring those responsible for the blockage [in the formation of a government]," according to the French Embassy in Beirut.
The French embassy also announced in a statement that Ambassador Anne Grillo and her US counterpart, Dorothy Shea, will travel to Saudi Arabia on Thursday to meet a number of Saudi officials.
Grillo will explain during the meetings the urgency for the Lebanese officials to form a credible and effective government that works on establishing the necessary reforms.
U.S. Ambassador Dorothy Shea Travel to Saudi Arabiahttps://t.co/uLu26mC6sX@AmbaFranceLiban
— U.S. Embassy Beirut (@usembassybeirut) July 7, 2021
Déplacement de l'Ambassadrice de France en Arabie saoudite.
— La France au Liban (@AmbaFranceLiban) July 7, 2021
زيارة سفيرة فرنسا إلى المملكة العربية السعودية. pic.twitter.com/J7jt3Zn94b
"This visit follows U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken’s trilateral meeting on Lebanon with French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian and Saudi Arabian Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan Al-Saud on June 29 in Matera, Italy, on the sidelines of the G-20 conference," according to the US Embassy's statement.
An Arab diplomatic source in Beirut told AFP that Saudi Arabia has not yet shown a desire to get involved in the details.
France, whose officials visited Lebanon, imposed sanctions on Lebanese figures it considers "responsible for political perversion and corruption," and the European Union has threatened to impose sanctions.
Caretaker Prime Minister Hassan Diab beseeched Tuesday the international community not to link its support to Lebanon with the formation of a new government, speaking with several ambassadors and representatives of diplomatic missions about a "siege" on Lebanon during the meeting.
French Ambassador Anne Grillo responded to the caretaker Prime Minister by saying, "What is frightening, Mr. Prime Minister, is that today, this brutal collapse... is the deliberate result of mismanagement and inaction for years. It is not the result of an external siege."
The French diplomat in charge of coordinating international aid to Lebanon, Pierre Dukan, will arrive in Beirut on Wednesday to follow up on the humanitarian aid file and prepare for a third support conference for the Lebanese people.
