French President Emmanuel Macron arrived in Riyadh for hastily scheduled talks with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman amid rising tensions between Saudi Arabia and Iran.
His visit comes after the shock resignation of Lebanon's Prime Minister Saad Hariri who made the announcement in a broadcast from Riyadh on Saturday.
Lebanon believes Hariri is held under house arrest in Saudi Arabia and that he was coerced into resigning by the Kingdom as as it seeks to hit back against Iran and its Lebanese Shi'ite ally Hezbollah.
Stunned Lebanese are convinced Saudi Arabia, Hariri's longtime ally, forced him out to effectively wreck the prime minister's delicate compromise government with Hezbollah.
Saad Hariri declared his surprise resignation on Saturday from Riyadh
Iran and Saudi Arabia are locked in a power struggle for influence in Lebanon and France has close historical ties to the Middle Eastern country, which was once its colony.
President Macron said he had held informal contacts with Hariri, but there had been no request to transfer him to France.
Macron, on his debut visit to the Middle East, made the surprise announcement at a news conference in Dubai that he would meet with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
'It was decided to go on this visit to Riyadh to see the Crown Prince, first, it is in order to have a first meeting with him, but also to discuss regional questions, in particular Yemen and Lebanon, he said.
'I will also emphasize the importance of Lebanese stability and integrity.'
Officials in Lebanon are now reportedly planning to work with foreign states to secure the politician's return to the country in the latest twist in an extraordinary resignation.
'Lebanon is heading towards asking foreign and Arab states to put pressure on Saudi to release Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri,' said the official, who declined to be identified because the government had yet to declare the initiative.
The official said Hariri was still Lebanon's prime minister.
'Keeping Hariri with restricted freedom in Riyadh is an attack on Lebanese sovereignty. Our dignity is his dignity. We will work with (foreign) states to return him to Beirut.'
Saudi Arabia and Hariri aides have denied reports that he is under house arrest, but he has put out no statements himself denying his movements are being restricted.
Saudi Arabia says the Iran-backed group Hezbollah had 'hijacked' the political system in Lebanon.
In his resignation speech, Hariri attacked Iran and Hezbollah for sowing strife in Arab states and said he feared assassination.
Saad Hariri declared his surprise resignation on Saturday from Riyadh which fuelled beliefs he was coerced into standing down against his will.
His resignation has thrust Lebanon back onto the front line of the Middle East's most biting rivalry, pitting a mostly Sunni bloc led by Saudi Arabia and including the UAE against Shiite Iran and its allies.
Hariri made the surprise announcement in a pre-recorded message on a Saudi-owned TV station.
Last week, Saudi Minister for Gulf Affairs Thamer al-Sabhan predicted on Lebanon's MTV station that 'astonishing developments' were coming for Lebanon.
After Hariri's resignation, rumours spread in Lebanon that he was under house arrest in Saudi Arabia - especially after news broke over the weekend of arrests in the kingdom of dozens of Saudi princes, ministers and influential businessmen in a sweep purportedly over corruption.
Hezbollah's leader, Hassan Nasrallah, on Sunday accused Saudi Arabia of drafting Hariri's resignation letter and forcing him to read it on Saudi TV.
He even asked whether Hariri was being held against his will.
The daily Al-Akhbar, a harsh critic of Saudi Arabia's policies, ran a full-page photo of Hariri on its front page with the words: 'The hostage.'
Speculation continued to swirl despite the official Saudi Press Agency carrying photos Monday showing Hariri meeting with Saudi King Salman.
Hariri tweeted that he was 'honored to visit' the king in his office - and some of his supporters tweeted back, telling him to take a selfie raising his left hand as a signal that he's OK.
Hariri, a dual Saudi-Lebanese citizen, has been facing financial difficulties recently as his business in Saudi Arabia suffers.
Earlier this year he closed his family's Oger construction firm that had made billions of dollars since his late father founded it in the 1970s.
Some experts on Lebanese politics are convinced Riyadh was behind the resignation.
Hilal Khashan, a political science professor at the American University of Beirut, said Hariri made 'many concessions' to his political rivals in order to become prime minister and would not have given up the position had it not been for Saudi pressure.
Joseph Bahout, a visiting scholar in Carnegie's Middle East Program, warned just last month that Saudi Arabia was seeking ways to compensate for the loss of Syria as a place where it could defy and bleed Iran.
'A renewed desire to reverse their regional fortunes could lead them to try regaining a foothold in Lebanon,' he wrote.
Saudi Arabia has denied any meddling.
The resignation throws Lebanon into potential turmoil, forcing the small nation to become a new front in the regional fight for supremacy between Saudi Arabia and Iran.
And this at a time when Iran and its allies are seen to have won the proxy war against Saudi-backed Sunni fighters in Syria.
Sunni-led Saudi Arabia, under Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, has been intensifying its confrontation with Shiite powerhouse Iran.
The two camps support rival sides in countries across the region, worsening conflicts in Yemen, Syria and elsewhere.
Lebanon has been on the verge of blowing up into full scale violence, and only compromise by Lebanese parties has stopped it doing so in a country still haunted by memories from its own 1975-1990 civil war.
Shiite Hezbollah dominates Lebanon, but it has sought not to provoke the Sunni community, which in turn has avoided crossing the guerrilla force.
The fear among some Lebanese now is that Saudi Arabia will upset that balance, trying to compensate for its losses in proxy wars elsewhere.
In Syria, Hezbollah and other Iranian-backed fighters allied with President Bashar Assad's forces have recaptured large areas and are working to secure a much-prized land corridor stretching from Tehran to the Mediterranean through Iraq, Syria and Lebanon.
By contrast, Saudi Arabia has been stuck in a fruitless war in Yemen against Iranian-backed Shiite rebels, and a Saudi bid to isolate Qatar has failed to achieve its goals.
Saudi fingerprints were seen all over Hariri's resignation on Saturday.
Unexpectedly, Hariri appeared on Saudi-owned Al-Arabiya TV in a recorded video from an undisclosed location, haltingly delivering a statement in which he accused Iran of meddling in Arab affairs and the Iran-backed Hezbollah of holding Lebanon hostage.
'Iran's arms in the region will be cut off,' he said, adding that he felt compelled to resign and that his life was endangered.
