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"Nothing justifies Hariri's lack of return for 12 days. We
therefore consider him detained. This is a violation of the
Vienna agreements and human rights law," Aoun said at a meeting
with Lebanese journalists and media executives.
"We cannot wait longer and lose time. Affairs of state cannot be
stopped," Aoun added on Twitter.
Hariri resigned as prime minister on Nov. 4 in a video broadcast
from Saudi Arabia and has yet to return to Lebanon. Aoun has
said he will not accept the resignation until Hariri returns to
Lebanon and submits it in person.
On Wednesday Hariri repeated he would return home.
"I want to repeat and affirm that I am perfectly fine and I will
return, God willing, to dear Lebanon as I promised you, you'll
see," he wrote on Twitter.
Aoun had said on Sunday that Hariri's freedom was being
restricted in Riyadh, casting doubt over anything that Hariri
says. Aoun's comments on Wednesday went further, saying for the
first time that Hariri was being held.
Saudi Arabia denies holding Hariri against his will or putting
pressure on him to resign. In his first public comments since
his resignation, an interview given on Sunday to a television
station he owns, Hariri said he was free to travel and planned
to return to Lebanon within days.
(Reporting by Lisa Barrington and Ellen Francis; Editing by
Peter Graff and Richard Balmforth)
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