MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Three French lawmakers are departing on a humanitarian visit to Syria to spend the Orthodox Christmas weekend with Syrian Christians in Aleppo. The trip will take place on January 5-10, during which meetings with Syria's President Bashar Assad and Foreign Minister Walid Moualem are planned.
"We also will meet in Beirut with President Michel Aoun," Mariani, a former French Transport Minister, said, adding that the meeting will take place on way back to Paris.
Aside from Mariani, the delegation consists of two other members of France’s parliament, namely Nicolas Dhuicq of the Aube department and Jean Lasalle of the Pyrenees-Atlantiques department.
The president in Lebanon is always chosen from Christian candidates, according to an unwritten agreement, which also stipulates that the prime minister must always be a Sunni Muslim and the speaker of the parliament must be a Shiite.
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