French President Emmanuel Macron welcomed Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri and his family at the Elysee Palace in Paris on Saturday.
French officials said they hope the visit will help end the political crisis by showing Hariri is free to travel.
Hariri and his wife arrived in France on Saturday, two weeks after his shocking resignation sparked speculation that he was being held hostage in Saudi Arabia.
Hariri announced his resignation in a televised address from the Saudi capital, Riyadh, this month, saying his life was in danger. Lebanon said it could not accept his resignation until he returned to the country.
While he has not yet returned to Lebanon, he could go back by Wednesday, according to the Lebanese President’s office.
In a tweet, the Lebanese President’s office says Hariri called Lebanese President Michel Aoun and told him he will attend Lebanon Independence Day events, which will happen Wednesday.
Hariri has not yet made his travel plans know and it is unclear exactly when he will return to Lebanon.
Hariri’s resignation announcement plunged Lebanon into a political crisis and stoked fears of conflict between the Saudi-backed faction of the country’s government and Hezbollah, a powerful Iran-backed Shia militant group whose political wing is the most powerful bloc in Lebanon’s fractured coalition government.
Aoun alleged Hariri was being “held captive” in Saudi Arabia earlier in the week.
Since he quit, Hariri has held several meetings with senior European and Arab officials, including Abu Dhabi’s crown prince, but has made no public statements about them.
Hariri tweeted Friday that his stay in Saudi Arabia had been to “conduct discussions over the future situation in Lebanon” and dismissed any stories about him leaving or staying in the kingdom.
“To say that I am held up in Saudi Arabia and not allowed to leave the country is a lie. I am on the way to the airport,” he said Friday.
Five days after Hariri resigned, Macron made an unscheduled trip to Riyadh to meet with Hariri and Saudi officials.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said Hariri had been invited to France and was living in “Saudi Arabia by his own will and can leave whenever he wants.”