Hariri makes brief stopover in Cyprus on way back to Lebanon

Former Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri made an unexpected trip to Cyprus on Tuesday evening and met President Nicos Anastasiades.

Attaching photographs, government spokesman Nicos Christodoulides tweeted that Anastasiades and Hariri had a “warm and fruitful meeting”.

“Breaking news: Warm and fruitful meeting of Cyprus President [Nicos Anastasiades] and Prime Minister of Lebanon [Saad Hariri] in Cyprus,” Christodoulides tweeted.

The former Lebanese premier tended his resignation on November 4 over an alleged plot to assassinate him.

Since then, Anastasiades repeatedly said he invited Hariri to come to Cyprus, citing their personal friendship.

Hariri was in Egypt earlier on Tuesday for a meeting with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi.

He later arrived back in Beirut to take part in Independence Day celebrations on Wednesday, his first trip home since his sudden resignation on November 4.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.