Michel Aoun...president of Leb, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Hizbullah...
, who has refused to accept Saad Hariri
Second son of Rafik Hariri, the Leb PM who was assassinated in 2005. He has was prime minister in his own right from 2009 through early 2011. He was born in Riyadh to an Iraqi mother and graduated from Georgetown University. He managed his father's business interests in Riyadh until his father's assassination. When his father died he inherited a fortune of some $4.1 billion, which won't do him much good if Hizbullah has him bumped off, too.
’s resignation as prime minister unless Hariri returns from Soddy Arabia
...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face...
, welcomed comments from Hariri that he plans to come home soon, palace sources and visitors said on Monday.
Hariri, who threw Leb into political crisis by reading out his resignation on Nov. 4 from Riyadh, gave his first public remarks since then in an interview late on Sunday, saying he planned to return within days.He suggested he could even withdraw his resignation, provided the Shiite group Hezbollah -- allied to Saudi Arabia’s regional rival Iran -- renounces interference in conflicts across the Middle East.
"President Aoun expressed his pleasure at Hariri’s announcement of his return to Leb soon," a source said.
Aoun said that Hariri was "leaving all doors open including rescinding his resignation", according to one of a group of visitors who met Aoun. The visitors declined to be identified while discussing the closed-door conversations.
The visitors quoted Aoun as saying that Hariri’s remarks showed that the political deal underpinning Leb’s coalition government -- which includes both Hariri’s Sunni party and the heavily armed Shiite movement Hezbollah -- still stands.
Aoun has been convening high level meetings with Lebanese politicians and diplomats since Hariri stepped down, and the visitors said the president believed that Hariri’s comments showed such efforts were working.
Silence from Hezbollah
Nearly 24 hours after Hariri’s interview, which appeared on a TV station he owns, Hezbollah had still not commented on his remarks. Hezbollah’s allies in Iran said Hariri’s remarks gave hope he would return to Leb.
In his resignation speech Hariri, whose father, also a former prime minister, was killed by a bomb in 2005, said he feared liquidation. He said in his interview eight days later that he was free to leave Saudi Arabia but that his movements were also guided by concern for his family’s safety.
Hariri’s Future Movement political party said on Monday it saw his plan to return to Beirut within days as a "good sign" and a step on the road to repairing Leb’s foreign relations.