Lebanon: Hariri ally lambasts the former PM in TV interview

Lebanese Druze leader Walid Joumblatt criticised former Prime Minister and ally Saad Hariri during a live TV interview on Monday evening, just hours after Mr Hariri reported that he had held encouraging meetings with top officials in a bid to return as head of government. “This is a self-nomination,” he told local television network Al Jadeed, accusing Mr Hariri of behaving like French monarch Louis XIV who famously said: “I am the state”. Mr Joumblatt, a close ally of Mr Hariri’s despite several fallings-outs in the...