Lebanon: Marine Le Pen schedules visit with Maronite Patriarch

Marine Le Pen - Wiki image

Marine Le Pen, France's far-right National Front leader and presidential candidate is currently on a 48-hour visit to the Lebanon. She has already been received by President Michel Aoun in the Presidential Palace in Babda. The agenda for her short trip includes meetings with Maronite Patriarch Boutros Bechara Rai, Lebanese Premier Saad Hariri and politician Samir Geagea, leader of the Lebanese Forces.

In her talk with President Aoun, Lebanese media report that Marine Le Pen said she saw the struggle against Islamic fundamentalism as a context for collaboration between Lebanon and France. She is said to have highlighted the need for more decisive international support to help institutions and the Lebanese population to cope with the emergency of refugees from Syria and Iraq.

According to UNHCR there are now more than 1.5 million refugees from Syria in the Lebanon. The country has also taken in 447,957 refugees from Palestine, and smaller numbers from Sudan and Iraq.

If she becomes the President of France, Marine Le Pen has pledged to reconnect official diplomatic relations with President Assad and will reopen the French embassy in Damascus.

Source: Fides