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FRANCE-POLITICS-CHIRAC-LEBANON
Lebanon declares day of mourning for ‘friend’ Chirac
BEIRUT, Sept 27, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – Lebanon is to hold a day of mourning
Monday following the death of former French president Jacques Chirac, the
country’s leader announced.
Flags will be flown at half-mast to honour a “friend of Lebanon”, according
to a statement by Prime Minister Saad Hariri published by state-run National
News Agency.
The former French leader had strong links with Lebanon and its former
premier, the billionaire Rafiq Hariri, who was assassinated in Beirut in
2005.
Saad Hariri said Thursday he felt the same sadness at Chirac’s death as
“when I lost my father.”
Chirac played a key role in the creation of a special tribunal to
investigate the killing of Rafiq Hariri and other Lebanese opponents of the
Syrian regime.
Chirac died in Paris on Thursday aged 86.
BSS/AFP/RY/20:25 hrs