French President Francois Hollande made a quick visit to Beirut while he was heading towards Riyadh.
Nidal Hamadeh
French President Francois Hollande made a quick visit to Beirut while he was heading towards Riyadh. This presidential visit was announced instantly after Hollande's return from Toulouse which he visited with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Lebanese media interpreted and explained the visit in different ways – each part according to its own benefit – until some of the March 14 theorists read Hollande's face expressions and hand movements to stress that the French president wants the ouster of this government, just like the Lebanese opposition is demanding.
Well-informed French sources excluded all the interpretations about Hollande's visit, assuring to Al-Manar website that they are only press-estimations. The sources added that the French president was not considering to visit the Lebanese capital Beirut and that he took the decision immediately after his lunch with Netanyahu in Toulouse, South France.
The French sources said that Hollande carried with him a warning from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to the Lebanese President about the importance of "bridling" Hezbollah in any war between Israel and Iran.
The sources also revealed that the Israeli PM told the French president that "Israel is getting closer to bombard the Iranian nuclear facilities, and the Hebrew state considers this issue a matter of life or death," adding that Netanyahu also told Hollande that "we can't wait more, as the United States is taking the long path of sanctions which does not have certain results, and the West is busy with its economic crisis."
The Israeli PM expected that Hezbollah would interfere in case of a war for the benefit of Iran, indicating that he feared Hezbollah's rockets that are planted on the mountains of Lebanon, besides his fear that commandos units related to Hezbollah would penetrate North Palestine to take control over the settlements there and take thousands of Israelis hostages.
He added that Israel will destroy Lebanon if Hezbollah interfered in the war, and the French should inform their Lebanese friends about this issue.
For its part, the well-informed weekly Le Canard Enchaîné quoted sources, that accompanied the French president in his visit to Beirut, as saying that Hollande told his companions in the plane that took him to Beirut that he was "shocked with Netanyahu's obsession with his Iran… he talked to me only about Iran during the whole discussion".
France and the Syrian Opposition's Meetings in Doha
On the Syrian issue, well-informed Syrian opposition sources told Al-Manar website that proposing the name of Riad Seif as a substitute for the Syrian National Council came from the French, and it was the result of a recommendation from Former Spokeswomen for the National Council Basma Qadmani.
The sources added that the Syrian opposition's meetings in Doha that took off two days ago under the pressure of the US in specific did not reach any result, and the attendees have extended their meetings 24 hours.
According to the Syrian opposition sources, the Muslim brotherhood have apparently advanced more as they have achieved 23 out of 51 seats. For his part, "Syrian National Council" official in charge of relations with the "Free Syrian Army" Jamal Al-Ward said that an initiative to form and expanded coalition would not work.
