Hariri lands in Cairo

CAIRO: Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri landed in Cairo on Tuesday for talks with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi before returning to his country, an AFP correspondent said.
Hariri, who arrived from Paris, had set off a political crisis in Lebanon after announcing his surprise resignation on November 4 from Saudi Arabia before travelling to France.He has said he would return to Lebanon by Wednesday.In his resignation speech he accused Saudi Arabia’s arch-rival Iran and its powerful Lebanese ally Hezbollah of destabilising his country.
Lebanon army chief warns of Israel threat amid political crisis: Lebanon’s army chief told his soldiers on Tuesday to be extra vigilant to prevent unrest during political turmoil after the prime minister quit, and accused Israel of “aggressive” intentions across the southern frontier.
Troops should be ready to “thwart any attempt to exploit the current circumstances for stirring strife. . . and chaos,” the army’s Twitter account quoted General Joseph Aoun as saying.
“The exceptional political situation that Lebanon is going through requires you to exercise the highest levels of awareness and vigilance,” he said ahead of Independence Day celebrations on Wednesday. Aoun called on troops to “assume full readiness at the southern border to face the threats of the Israeli enemy, its violations, and the aggressive intentions it is indicating towards Lebanon”. A senior Israeli official dismissed the warnings of border aggression as “nonsense”. Shi’ite movement Hezbollah’s heavily armed militia is at the heart of Lebanon’s political crisis, part of a regional struggle between Sunni Saudi Arabia and Shi’ite Iran.