President Michel Aoun relocated to the summer presidential residence in Beiteddine in the Chouf district of Mt Lebanon on Friday where a delegation of the Progressive Socialist Party is expected to welcome , the National News Agency reported.
NNA said the PSP delegation comprised of PSP officials, lawmakers, religious figures, mayors and head of municipal unions are to visit Aoun on Saturday.
Banners welcoming the President stretched from the Damour area to Beiteddine Palace, it added.
But overnight, unknown assailants tore down some of the banners.
Aoun’s move comes days after the reconciliation in Baabda Palace between PSP leader Walid Jumblatt and Lebanese Democratic Party leader MP Talal Arslan.
In a tweet Friday, Jumblatt welcomed Aoun saying: “Above all else, the Mountain welcomes President of the Republic General Michel Aoun at the summer presidential residence in Beiteddine.”
In 1943, the palace was declared the official president’s summer residence. During the Lebanese Civil War it was heavily damaged. Parts of the palace are today open to the public while the rest is still the president’s summer residence.
Emir Bashir II of the Shihab dynasty, who later became the ruler of the Mount Lebanon Emirate, started building the palace in 1788 . Bashir moved the headquarters of the emirate from Deir al-Qamar to Beit ed-Dine by 1811.He ruled from the palace he built, known as the Beiteddine Palace, which he supplied with water by building a lengthy canal connecting the palace to the Safa River.
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