Macron Announces French-Saudi Initiative for Riyadh-Beirut Crisis

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French President Emmanuel Macron announced Saturday from the Saudi city of Jeddah, that he and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman had telephoned Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati, as part of an initiative to resolve the crisis between Riyadh and Beirut.

Before leaving Jeddah at the conclusion of a short Gulf tour, Macron said that Saudi Arabia and Lebanon want to restore their relations, in the wake of the recent diplomatic crisis between the two.

"Along with Saudi Arabia, we made commitments to Lebanon: work together, support reforms, enable the country to emerge from the crisis and preserve its sovereignty," Macron wrote on Twitter.

Avec l’Arabie saoudite, nous avons pris des engagements pour le Liban : travailler ensemble, soutenir les réformes, permettre au pays de sortir de la crise et préserver sa souveraineté.

— Emmanuel Macron (@EmmanuelMacron) December 4, 2021

Macron's statements come one day after Lebanese Information Minister George Kordahi announced his resignation, expressing his hope that it will contribute to ending Lebanon's crisis.

Last October, Riyadh summoned its ambassador to Lebanon for consultations and requested that the Lebanese ambassador leaves the Kingdom within 48 hours, following a published interviewing showing Kordahi, before he was appointed a minister, describing the war on Yemen as "futile."

The repercussions of the crisis developed to include several Gulf countries (Kuwait, the UAE, and Bahrain) that took similar positions to their neighbor.

Macron is now one of the first Western leaders to have met Bin Salman since the murder of Saudi Journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018, in his own country's consulate in Istanbul.

Dialogue with Saudi Arabia, "the leading Gulf country in terms of size," is necessary to "work for stability in the region," Macron said on Friday.

Before arriving in Saudi Arabia, Macron visited the UAE and Qatar, where several regional issues were discussed, including the Vienna negotiations between Iran and the West, and sending a diplomatic mission to Afghanistan.