Putin meets Lebanon PM Hariri in Russia visit

Russian President Vladimir Putin has met with Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri in the Russian Black Sea city of Sochi.

MENA

1 min read

The New Arab & agencies

13 September, 2017

Hariri (L) met with Russia's president in the resort city of Sochi [AFP]

Russian President Vladimir Putin has met with Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri in the Russian Black Sea city of Sochi.

Putin said on Wednesday ahead of the meeting that agreements signed between the two countries during Hariri’s visit to Russia would “work toward the positive development of our bilateral inter-state relationship,” Russia’s RIA Novosti news agency reported.

After the meeting, Hariri said that deepening military ties and reconstruction in war-torn Syria had been discussed.

Hariri met with Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev and Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Moscow on Tuesday.

The Lebanese leader told Russian state television channel Rossiya 24 on Wednesday that Beirut wanted to buy more Russian military equipment and that Russian energy companies are in line to win drilling licenses off Lebanon’s Mediterranean coast.

Last month a Lebanese army campaign against IS ended with the militants withdrawing from their stronghold along the border under a ceasefire deal which saw fighters evacuated to eastern Syria.

Hizballah, which fights alongside Russian-backed Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, mounted a parallel offensive to dislodge IS from the Syrian side of the frontier.