France, Lebanon and the Hariri family have close ties

This file photo taken on September 1, 2017 shows French President Emmanuel Macron (right) shaking hands with Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri during a press conference at the Murat Lounge in the Elysee Palace in Paris. Hariri arrived in Paris on Saturday on Macron's invitation. PHOTO | LUDOVIC MARIN | AFP

What you need to know:

  • Rafiq Hariri made numerous investments in France and headquartered his construction group Oger International in a Parisian suburb.
  • Chirac lived in a luxurious Paris apartment owned by the Hariri family for around eight years after he left office and retired in 2007.

PARIS

France under President Emmanuel Macron has played a leading role in trying to avert a fresh crisis in Lebanon following the surprise resignation of its prime minister Saad Hariri.

Hariri arrived in Paris on Saturday on Macron's invitation, after the premier once again dismissed rumours that he had been held against his will in Saudi Arabia since announcing his resignation there on November 4.

As Macron holds talks with Hariri, AFP explains France's role in working to defuse the situation.

OTTOMANS

Links between France and multifaith Lebanon go back at least to the 16th century, when King Francis I signed an agreement with the Ottoman Empire giving the French royals the status of protectors of Christians in the Middle East.

With the fall of the Ottomans in 1920, Lebanon emerged as a contemporary state but it was administered by France under a League of Nations mandate until 1943, when it gained independence.

Since then, France has maintained close ties with the unstable country.

MIDDLE EAST

Macron, a 39-year-old former investment banker, is also keen to make a mark in international relations after coming to power in May.

He flew to Riyadh to meet Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman himself last week and sent his Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian back on Wednesday for further talks.

Macron is trying to fill a void of Western power in the Middle East: the United States has retreated under Donald Trump, while Britain remains wrapped up in its Brexit negotiations.

This has led to a whirlwind of diplomacy from Macron with varying degrees of success, from efforts to find a solution in war-wracked Libya to a campaign in favour of maintaining the Iran nuclear deal.

TENSIONS

Lebanon's President Michel Aoun said that he had spoken with Hariri by telephone following his arrival in France and that the premier said he would be home for Independence Day celebrations on Wednesday.

Aoun, who had accused the Saudis of holding his prime minister "hostage" — a claim dismissed by both Hariri and Riyadh — had already backed the Paris trip as a step forward on Thursday.

"We hope that the crisis is over and Hariri's acceptance of the invitation to go to France is the start of a solution," Aoun, who has refused to accept the premier's resignation from abroad, tweeted.

The French-language Lebanese newspaper L'Orient-Le Jour said France had "achieved the unexpected by inviting Hariri" to leave Riyadh, saying it had "lowered tensions a notch".

INVESTMENT

Hariri's family has properties and long-standing links in France that go back to the early 1980s when Jacques Chirac, then the mayor of Paris, became close to Saad's father Rafiq.

Rafiq Hariri, a wealthy real estate developer who made his fortune in Saudi Arabia, made numerous investments in France and headquartered his construction group Oger International in a Parisian suburb.

This could now come back to bite his son — who inherited it — as it recently went bankrupt, leaving salaries and pensions worth millions of dollars unpaid around the world since 2015.

ASSASSINATION
About 240 laid-off French employees are seeking nearly 20 million euros ($24 million) after the company collapsed under huge debts, as tumbling oil prices hit Saudi construction hard.

The elder Hariri's friendship with Chirac turned overtly political after 1992 when he became prime minister of Lebanon.

Chirac was elected president three years later.

He was the only head of state to attend Hariri's funeral in Beirut in 2005 after he was killed in a bombing.

Chirac lived in a luxurious Paris apartment owned by the Hariri family for around eight years after he left office and retired in 2007.