This handout photo provided by the Saudi Royal Palace shows French President Emmanuel Macron (centre) and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman (right) posing next to Lebanon’s Prime Minister Saad Hariri during an official dinner at The Elysee Palace in Paris on Tuesday (AFP photo)

BEIRUT, Lebanon — Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Al Hariri said on Wednesday he had held an “excellent” meeting with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman, and expected to sign economic deals with Riyadh soon.

Hariri also urged the quick formation of a government after a parliamentary election taking place on May 6, to ensure the continuation of economic reforms linked to unlocking billions of dollars of international financing pledged at a Paris conference last week.

“We will see very soon certain agreements that will be signed with Saudi Arabia vis-a-vis different sectors of the economy, whether it is industry, and tourism and services,” he told a news conference, without giving further details.

“God willing, in the coming few weeks, this is what we are trying to work towards,” said Hariri, who posted a photo of himself together with Bin Salman and French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris late on Tuesday.

Lebanon’s relations with Saudi Arabia plunged into crisis in November, when Hariri abruptly resigned from the premiership during a visit to the kingdom.

Lebanese officials said at the time that Saudi Arabia had forced him to step down, which Riyadh denied. Hariri retracted his resignation after returning to Lebanon weeks later, following French intervention.

Lebanon won pledges exceeding $11 billion at the Paris conference on Friday.

Lebanon, which has been battered by seven years of war in neighbouring Syria and is hosting more than a million Syrian refugees, is seeking international support to overhaul its infrastructure and lift dwindling economic growth.

Donors in turn want to see Lebanon commit to long-stalled reforms that Hariri said were essential regardless of international donors’ demands. The country has one of the highest debt-to-GDP ratios in the world.

Saroj Kumar Jha, World Bank regional director for Lebanon, Iraq, Syria, Jordan and Iran, on Wednesday said the bank would work with the government to adopt reforms with a clear timeline and benchmarks.

“I’m very optimistic about it from what I’ve heard from the leaders from this country and also from the presentations made by the leadership in the Paris conference and the response from the global leaders who came,” he told reporters in Beirut.

The World Bank will increase its commitment in Lebanon to $4 billion over the next five years from $3 billion in the last five years, he said.</s>PARIS (Reuters) - Saudi Aramco will sign eight deals worth $10 billion with French firms on Tuesday, the chief executive of the state-run oil giant said on Monday - the main contracts expected to be sealed during Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s visit to France.

The powerful young prince who is behind modernizing reforms in Saudi Arabia is on a three-day trip at a time when relations between the two countries have become more complicated, including over how to address Iran’s role in the region.

Amin Nasser told Saudi-run Al Arabiya TV on Monday that his company would finalize the accords on Tuesday. A Saudi-France economic forum is due to take place on Tuesday with an official signing ceremony in the afternoon.

Aramco and French oil major Total plan to sign an agreement to expand their joint venture refinery in Saudi Arabia, sources familiar with the matter told Reuters on April 5.

Total declined to comment and Aramco did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The prince is not due to sign mega-contracts in France as he did in the United States and Britain in the past month. A French presidency statement said the two leaders would work on a strategic document that would lead to contracts by the year’s end, when Macron travels to Saudi Arabia.

French officials dismiss suggestions that the lack of lucrative accords reflects a weakening in the relationship. They say a new “method” of working together does not depend on eye-catching new business.

They will also formally agree on Tuesday to cooperate on a massive tourism project that showcases Saudi history, part of the prince’s efforts to wean the country off a dependency on oil exports, open up its society and push social reform.

The two countries also said the Paris National Opera would help the kingdom develop a national orchestra.

Saudi Minister of Culture and Information Awwad Alawwad said the kingdom would officially participate for the first time in the Cannes Film Festival next month, with nine short films.

Prince Mohammed on Monday pulled out of touring a mega-campus for tech startups in Paris, an official in the French prime minister’s office said - a visit that was meant to highlight deepening Franco-Saudi technology ties.

Prince Mohammed, 32, and President Emmanuel Macron, 40, both paint themselves as champions of their nations’ plugged-in younger generation.

The prince’s decision to skip a visit to Station F, Europe’s largest start-up incubator, founded by billionaire Xavier Neil, is likely to disappoint Macron, especially after the crown prince met technology titans in Silicon Valley last week.

France nurtured closer ties with the Sunni-ruled kingdom under president Francois Hollande, who was tough on Iran in nuclear negotiations and whose policies on conflicts across the Middle East broadly overlapped with Saudi positions.

However, Hollande’s successor has sometimes viewed Prince Mohammed’s uncompromising efforts to counter Iran’s growing regional influence as counter-productive, diplomats say.

“The president speaks to everyone, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Iran, Qatar....” the French presidency said in a statement after the two dined on Sunday night at the Louvre museum.</s>PARIS (Reuters) - President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday defended French weapons sales to the Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen, but said he was concerned by the humanitarian situation and would host a conference on the issue before the summer.

 Pressure has been mounting on Macron to scale back arms support for Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), which are leading the coalition fighting the Iran-aligned Houthi group that controls most of northern Yemen and the capital Sanaa.

 The conflict has killed more than 10,000 people and displaced more than 3 million, with no sign of a diplomatic breakthrough to ease the crisis.

 Seventy-five percent of French people want Macron to suspend arms exports to Saudi Arabia and the UAE, a YouGov poll found. Several rights groups also have warned of possible legal action if the government does not halt its sales.

 "Since the start of the conflict in Yemen, France has adopted a very specific process whereby all sales of military equipment are analyzed on a case-by-case basis and on the basis of reinforced criteria that reflect respect for international humanitarian law and the risk of harm to civilian populations," Macron said at a news conference alongside Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. 

 France is the world's third biggest arms exporter and counts the two countries among its biggest purchasers.

 Unlike many of its allies, French export licensing procedures have no parliamentary checks or balances. They are approved through a committee headed by the prime minister that includes the foreign, defense and economy ministries.

 Details of licenses are not public and, once approved, are rarely reviewed.

 Stressing concerns over the humanitarian situation, Macron said he would host a conference in the coming months to see what more could be done, although he backed the Saudi-led coalition's actions in Yemen.

 "France's position is clear: full support for the security of Saudi Arabia, condemnation of the ballistic activity coming from the Houthis, willingness to find a political solution to the conflict and strong humanitarian demands on civilian populations," Macron said.

 A Yemeni rights group on Tuesday filed a lawsuit against Prince Mohammed in France, accusing him of complicity in torture and inhumane treatment in Yemen, lawyers said.

 When asked about civilian casualties, Prince Mohammed said his country was working to modernize its rules of engagement to avoid civilian casualties, but said that in "military operations throughout history, whatever the country, there were mistakes." 

 

 (Reporting by John Irish; Editing by Michel Rose and Mark Potter)</s>“France has adopted a very specific arms process, with an existing commission that has reinforced its rules of distribution whereby all sales of military equipment are analyzed on a case-by-case basis and on the basis of reinforced criteria that reflect respect for international humanitarian law and the risk of harm to civilian populations,” Macron said.

“Stability in the Middle East is our common goal. With Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman at the Elysee Palace,” the French President tweeted.

Macron’s support for Saudi Arabia and the decision to continue selling arms to Riyadh, which is involved in the Yemeni war, has outraged many people in France, who immediately took to Twitter to express their indignation:

“Mr. Macron, it’s MBS [Mohammed bin Salman] who destabilizes the Middle East. Stop supporting him like foolish Trump.”

“Saudi Arabia is working hard on stability in Yemen with French weapons.”

“Stability? And what about arms contracts that you’re going to sign with Riyadh at the end of the year? Are they for water guns?”

“How can we speak about stability if we sell weapons to terrorist States. Macron has no morality.”

“How many contracts for these rogue states?”

“The only courageous decision would have been to suspend arms sales to Saudi Arabia, which bombs civilians in Yemen. But the president of the rich is the sales representative of French arms manufacturers. War crimes can continue.”

“Emmanuel Macron sells arms to Saudi Arabia to accompany it in its genocide in Yemen, and we speak of ‘international law’?”

However, there were those who showed some support for the strengthening of French-Saudi relations, saying that the recent developments fell within Salman’s “Vision 2030” strategy, outlining the future of the kingdom:

France is the world’s third largest arms exporter, and Saudi Arabia is one of its biggest purchasers: on April 8, Paris and Riyadh sealed a new intergovernmental agreement on a weapons deal.</s>A rights group filed a lawsuit against Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman during his visit to France on Tuesday, accusing him of complicity in torture and inhumane treatment in Yemen, lawyers said.

PARIS: A rights group filed a lawsuit against Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman during his visit to France on Tuesday, accusing him of complicity in torture and inhumane treatment in Yemen, lawyers said.

The complaint on behalf of Taha Hussein Mohamed, director of the Legal Center for Rights and Development (LCRD), said the prince who is Saudi Arabia's defence minister was responsible attacks that hit civilians in Yemen.

The case was filed in a Paris court as pressure grows on President Emmanuel Macron to curb arms sales to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, which spearhead a coalition fighting Iran-aligned Houthi rebels who control of most of northern Yemen and the capital Sanaa.

A Saudi government communications office and the royal court did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The Saudi-led coalition regularly says it does not target civilians.

The rights group, based in the Houthi-controlled Yemeni capital Sanaa, says on its website it monitors and documents rights' violations in Yemen.

"He ordered the first bombings on Yemeni territory on March 25, 2015," the group's lawyers, Joseph Breham and Hakim Chergui, said in the complaint seen by Reuters.

"The existence of indiscriminate shelling by the coalition armed forces affecting civilian populations in Yemen can be qualified as acts of torture," they wrote.

The lawsuit may embarrass Macron at a delicate moment in French-Saudi relations. France is the world's third biggest arms exporter and counts the kingdom as one of its biggest buyers.

The lawyers cited U.N. reports and documentation by rights groups such as Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and Oxfam on arbitrary detentions and the use of illegal cluster bombs.

Authorities will now begin studying the suit and decide whether there is a basis to take further legal action. If the case follows the usual course, the prince would be informed of the legal action, but there would be no move to make him attend a hearing or detain him.

The Yemen conflict has killed more than 10,000 people and displaced more than 3 million - more than 10 percent of the population.

The complaint also accuses the coalition of depriving millions of people of access to basic necessities due to indiscriminate bombings and a naval blockade of Yemeni ports. The war has pushed the country to the brink of famine.

Coalition air strikes targeting Houthi fighters have frequently hit civilian areas, although the alliance denies ever doing so intentionally.

The coalition also says it is providing financial support to help aid agencies and humanitarian groups to help civilians.

The lawyers said French courts were competent to handle the case in line with the United Nations convention against torture.

Seventy-five percent of French people want Macron to suspend arms exports to Gulf Arab states. Several rights groups have warned of possible legal action if the government does not halt its sales.</s>Paris (AFP) - Rights groups on Monday urged President Emmanuel Macron to pressure visiting Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman over the war in Yemen, warning that Riyadh may be using French weapons in the conflict.

"France is potentially an accomplice to serious violations of humanitarian laws by selling weapons and military equipment to Saudi Arabia, given what we know is taking place in Yemen," said Aurelie Perrier, coordinator for Yemen and Saudi Arabia at Amnesty International France.

"We want to ask President Macron to stop arms transfers to Saudi Arabia and to lift the blockade on Yemen," she told AFP at a protest under the Eiffel Tower as Prince Mohammed kicked off his visit to Paris.

Two other groups, the Weapons Observatory (Obsarm) and the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), said the sheer volume of French weapons exports to Saudi pointed to the likelihood that they have been deployed in Yemen.

The groups said French exports included types of equipment reported to have been used in Yemen, including Leclerc tanks and Caesar howitzers, while "confidential testimony" also pointed to the presence of French arms on the ground.

"If these indicators do not constitute proof, they throw serious suspicion on the massive presence and use of French military equipment in Yemen," they said in a statement.

A Saudi-led coalition has been bombing and blockading Yemen since 2015 in a conflict that has left 10,000 people dead.

A combination of fighting, disease and food shortages has led the Unirws Nations to call it the world's worst humanitarian crisis.

Prime Minister Edouard Philippe's office insisted last month that French land weapons sold to Riyadh were "defensive" and being used in Saudi Arabia to deter cross-border attacks.

He added that "surveillance measures" to track the use of French weapons had been "strongly reinforced in recent months".

Government spokesman Benjamin Griveaux said Monday there was a "clear interest for French industry" in continuing arms exports to Riyadh.

"It's an important part of our diplomacy," he said, while adding: "That doesn't mean turning a blind eye."

As the 32-year-old crown prince continues an international charm offensive that has included stops in the United States, Britain and Egypt, rights groups urged Macron to pressure his guest on human rights violations.

"Saudi Arabia remains one of the worst countries in the world in terms of its human rights record," Perrier said.

The prince has used his tour to project his reforms -- including the historic lifting of a ban on women driving, the revival of cinemas and tolerance for mixed-gender concerts -- as part of his pledge to return the kingdom to moderate Islam.

Prince Mohammed "considers himself a revolutionary, but if so, then he has to end the institutionalised oppression that has continued to build even after he came to power," said Amnesty France director Sylvie Brigot-Vilain.

"Especially regarding voices that oppose the regime, who increasingly find themselves behind bars."</s>PARIS: Saudi Arabia's crown prince wraps up his visit to France Tuesday (Apr 10), geared toward shoring up cooperation while addressing the lurking strategic differences between the two countries on a series of crises across the Middle East.

Prince Mohammed bin Salman, 32, will conclude his visit with further discussions with President Emmanuel Macron ahead of a gala dinner at the Elysee Palace.

On Monday, the prince held a surprise meeting with Lebanon's Prime Minister Saad Hariri, as well as talks with France's foreign and defence ministers.

Macron and the Saudi heir had already dined for nearly three hours Sunday at the Louvre museum, with the young French leader later tweeting photos of them in front of Eugene Delacroix's "Liberty Leading The People".

The choice of the famous painting of a bare-breasted woman holding the French tricolore was seen as underscoring the crown prince's efforts to introduce greater personal freedoms in the ultra-conservative kingdom.

Much of the prince's visit has also focused on deepening cultural ties with France, with Saudi officials drawing on the country's expertise to set up a national opera and orchestra.

The kingdom also revealed that it would enter short films at the Cannes film festival next month for the first time.

But diplomacy on several fronts has also been high on the agenda, with Hariri flying in for a meeting with Prince Mohammed on Monday just days after the Lebanese premier attended a donors' conference in Paris aimed at bolstering his country's crisis-hit economy.

Hariri later posted on Twitter a picture of the two men along with Morocco's King Mohammed VI, but without any comment, and it was unclear what the three leaders discussed.

Just last November, Hariri surprised the world by tendering his resignation on live television from Riyadh, apparently under pressure from Prince Mohammed.

Macron later intervened by inviting Hariri to Paris, and he later rescinded his resignation, a development that analysts say exposed the limits of the young Saudi prince's authority.

Macron, 40, is treading a diplomatic tightrope with the prince as he seeks to bolster his ties with the world's top oil exporter while also managing relations with Saudi Arabia's arch-rival Iran.

The two leaders plan to work on a "strategic document" involving a series of contracts to be signed by Macron during a visit to Saudi Arabia later this year, his office said.

The prince's delegation is set to host a forum Tuesday morning with multiple French business titans, which could trigger a host of memorandums of understanding, though it was unclear if the prince would attend.

The prince, widely known as MBS, is also expected to meet some French ministers, a source close to his delegation told AFP. He has so far met Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian and Defence Minister Florence Parly.

His visit is part of a global tour that has already seen him travel to the United States, Britain and Egypt as he seeks to project a more moderate vision of his country, typically associated in the West with exporting jihadist ideology.

After Paris, he will head to Madrid, before heading home ahead of the next Arab League summit meeting, on Apr 15 in Riyadh.

Amid the flurry of announcements in France, campaigners mobilised to keep attention focused on French weapons exports to Saudi Arabia and rights abuses in the country.

The kingdom is the lead partner in a coalition of countries bombing and blockading Yemen, where a combination of fighting, disease and food shortages has led the UN to dub it the world's worst humanitarian crisis.

Three out of four French people believe it is "unacceptable" for France, one of the world's biggest arms exporters, to continue selling weapons to Saudi Arabia, according to a YouGov poll.

The prince's visit follows a period of underlying tensions with France, not least with regards to Iran.

Saudi Arabia has lined up behind US President Donald Trump and his threat to walk away from the landmark 2015 accord which halted Tehran's nuclear programme.

Macron has been working to save the agreement, and has already announced plans to be the first French president to visit Iran since 1976, as he seeks to build relations with the two competing regional powers in the Middle East.</s>PARIS (Reuters) - President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday defended French weapons sales to the Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen, but said he was concerned by the humanitarian situation and would host a conference on the issue before the summer.

Pressure has been mounting on Macron to scale back arms support for Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), which are leading the coalition fighting the Iran-aligned Houthi group that controls most of northern Yemen and the capital Sanaa.

The conflict has killed more than 10,000 people and displaced more than 3 million, with no sign of a diplomatic breakthrough to ease the crisis.

Seventy-five percent of French people want Macron to suspend arms exports to Saudi Arabia and the UAE, a YouGov poll found. Several rights groups also have warned of possible legal action if the government does not halt its sales.

“Since the start of the conflict in Yemen, France has adopted a very specific process whereby all sales of military equipment are analyzed on a case-by-case basis and on the basis of reinforced criteria that reflect respect for international humanitarian law and the risk of harm to civilian populations,” Macron said at a news conference alongside Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

France is the world’s third biggest arms exporter and counts the two countries among its biggest purchasers.

Unlike many of its allies, French export licensing procedures have no parliamentary checks or balances. They are approved through a committee headed by the prime minister that includes the foreign, defense and economy ministries.

Details of licenses are not public and, once approved, are rarely reviewed.

Stressing concerns over the humanitarian situation, Macron said he would host a conference in the coming months to see what more could be done, although he backed the Saudi-led coalition’s actions in Yemen.

“France’s position is clear: full support for the security of Saudi Arabia, condemnation of the ballistic activity coming from the Houthis, willingness to find a political solution to the conflict and strong humanitarian demands on civilian populations,” Macron said.

A Yemeni rights group on Tuesday filed a lawsuit against Prince Mohammed in France, accusing him of complicity in torture and inhumane treatment in Yemen, lawyers said.

When asked about civilian casualties, Prince Mohammed said his country was working to modernize its rules of engagement to avoid civilian casualties, but said that in “military operations throughout history, whatever the country, there were mistakes.”</s>Saudi Arabia has scored a big new investment from France's Total.

The French oil group has signed a preliminary deal with Saudi Aramco to build what the companies described in a statement as a "giant" petrochemical complex in the kingdom.

The project will require investment of about $5 billion and will be integrated with an oil refinery that is already operated as a joint venture between Aramco and Total (TOT). Engineering and design work is due to begin in the third quarter of 2018.

Signed during a visit to Paris by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the deal will boost Aramco as it prepare for its initial public offering and help the kingdom as it diversifies away from oil.

"This project will enable us to strengthen our ties with Saudi Aramco, with whom we successfully operate our biggest and most efficient refinery in the world," Total CEO Patrick Pouyanné said in the statement.

He added that it would create 8,000 new jobs and bring new technology to the kingdom.

Bin Salman is on a global tour to attract foreign investment as he spearheads the Vision 2030 project to overhaul the Saudi economy.</s>Recently Syria was under a chemical missile attack that saw the death of many and some in critical conditions?

Saudi Arabia could take part in military action in Syria after a suspected chemical attack that killed at least 60 people in the eastern Ghouta region over the weekend, Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman said on Tuesday.

US President Donald Trump on Monday promised quick, forceful action in response to the attack, appearing to suggest a potential military response.

“If our alliance with our partners requires it, we will be present,” Prince Mohammad said at a news conference with French President Emmanuel Macron, wrapping up a three-day visit to Paris.

READ ALSO: How many died in the Syrian missile attack? Data revealed

Earlier, Foreign Minister Adel Al Jubeir had told reporters that a number of countries were holding consultations on how to respond to a chemical weapons attack in Syria and called for those responsible to be held accountable.

“Our position is that those responsible have to be held accountable and brought to justice,” he said.

The attack late on Saturday killed at least 60 people and hurt more than 1,000 at several sites in Douma, a town near the capital, Damascus, according to the Union of Medical Care Organizations.

When asked whether Saudi Arabia could be part of such a response, Al Jubeir declined to comment.

“I’m not going to get into speculation about what may or may not take place but all I can say is that there are discussions with regards to the options that are available to deal with this matter,” he said.
A Yemeni human rights group files a war crimes complaint against Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in Paris as the prince visits France.