Symbolic encounters, a polemic, and an incident. Marine Le Pen's visit to Lebanon, which ends Tuesday, has experienced some upheaval, although the FN leader has achieved her goal by meeting with President Michel Aoun. On her way to the country of the Cedar, where she is continuing a 48-hour visit aimed at acquiring international credibility, the president of the National Front (FN) Marine Le Pen, candidate for the second time in the French presidential election, is meeting on Monday with the two heads of the Lebanese executive.
First ever meet with the head of state
This was Le Pen's first meeting with the Lebanon's head of state Michel Aoun in her whole political career. The political analysts opined that she is building her stature at the international level.After her meeting with Saad Hariri, Prime Minister and leader of the Sunni community in the country, she addressed a message to the President, who has been fighting against Islamic fundamentalism, an axis of her campaign. "The most serious mistake would be the amalgam between Islam and Muslims on the one hand and terrorism on the other," she reminded in a communique issued after the meeting.
Frictions on the Syrian dossier
But the main subject of friction with one of the leaders of the Lebanese camp hostile to President Bashar al-Assad concerns mainly the issue of support for the Damascus regime.
"I expressed to the Prime Minister the analysis that was mine ... that, as things stand, there appeared to me to be no viable and plausible alternative to this binary choice, Who is Bashar al-Assad on one side and the [organization] Islamic state on the other," she said.
Not surprisingly, these remarks reiterated in the local press, provoked mixed reactions among the Lebanese political class, which is divided at the slightest mention of the Syrian file.
"The statements of Marine Le Pen in Lebanon are an insult to the Lebanese people and the Syrian people," said Druze leader Walid Jumblatt, an opponent of the Damascus regime, on Tuesday (February 21st).
