Tag Archives: Government

Trump chooses Gottlieb to run FDA; Pharma breathes sigh of relief

Dr. Scott Gottlieb is seen in this American Enterprise Institute photo released in Washington, DC, U.S., March 10, 2017. Courtesy The American Enterprise Institute/Handout via REUTERS

By Toni Clarke

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump has chosen Dr. Scott Gottlieb, a conservative health policy expert with deep ties to the pharmaceutical industry, to lead the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the White House said on Friday.

If confirmed by the Senate, Gottlieb would be in charge of implementing Trump’s plan to dramatically cut regulations governing food, drugs, cosmetics, dietary supplements and tobacco.

Gottlieb is well known on Capitol Hill, where he has testified multiple times on hot-button health issues, including complex drug pricing matters, and is viewed favorably by drug companies and pharmaceutical investors. He sits on the boards of several small drug and biotech companies and is an adviser to GlaxoSmithKline Plc <GSK.L>.

“Thank God it’s Gottlieb,” Brian Skorney, an investment analyst at Robert W. Baird, wrote in a research note. “We view this as a favorable development for the sector.”

Gottlieb was chosen over Jim O’Neill, a libertarian investor close to Silicon Valley billionaire Peter Thiel, a PayPal co-founder who now advises Trump on technology and science matters. O’Neill’s stated view that drugs should be approved before being proven effective generated widespread alarm.

Gottlieb, 44, is a resident fellow at the conservative American Enterprise Institute think tank and a partner at a large venture capital fund. He is a former FDA deputy commissioner who has advocated a loosening of requirements needed for approval of new medical products.

“Scott knows how the agency works and he will move it forwards, though maybe not always in ways the agency is comfortable with,” said John Taylor, a lawyer and president of compliance and regulatory affairs with the consulting firm Greenleaf Health and a former acting FDA deputy commissioner.

In addition to his public health and health policy roles, Gottlieb has for the past decade been a partner at New Enterprise Associates, a large venture fund with investments in the life sciences, medical technology and healthcare services.

Critics of the nomination say Gottlieb’s financial background present an array of potential conflicts of interest.

Dr. Michael Carome, director of Public Citizen’s Health Research Group, said Gottlieb “has spent most of his career dedicated to promoting the financial interests of the pharmaceutical industry.” If confirmed, he added, “he will have to be recused from key decisions time and time again.”

SIGNIFICANT CHANGES AT FDA EXPECTED

Stephen Ubl, a spokesman for the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, said it “looks forward to working with Dr. Gottlieb in his new role and engaging with him and the Agency as they seek to modernize the drug discovery and review process.”

Gottlieb, who declined to comment on the nomination, is unlikely to up-end the FDA in the way O’Neill might have, but he is nonetheless expected to bring significant change, including moving the agency to increase flexibility in the clinical trial development process.

In this he will be supported by the recently passed 21st Century Cures Act which instructs the FDA among other things to consider the use of “real world evidence” to support new drug applications. This could include anecdotal data, observational studies and patient reports

“People don’t want to take chances with safety, but there’s increasingly some clamor to be more flexible on the efficacy side,” said Kathleen Sanzo, who leads the FDA practice at the law firm Morgan, Lewis & Bockius. “You need to have some signal of efficacy. The question is, how much?”

The FDA has attempted to push back against moves to sideline randomized clinical trials, long considered the gold standard. In January it issued a report documenting 22 cases in which drugs that appeared to show promise in early trials turned out to be either ineffective or unsafe or both in larger trials.

One of Gottlieb’s priorities will likely be to streamline the process for approving generic versions of complex, difficult-to-copy therapeutics. He has stated publicly that he does not believe the FDA has good tools or policies to move such products and has advocated the creation of different approval standards.

“He’s a thoughtful and nuanced kind of guy, and not solely an industry shill,” said Jim Shehan, head of Lowenstein Sandler’s FDA regulatory practice.

A survey conducted by Mizuho Securities USA Inc of 53 pharmaceutical executives found that 72 percent favored Gottlieb over other potential candidates. Many described him as knowledgeable, experienced and balanced.

“Gottlieb is someone who the industry and investors view as an incremental positive,” said RBC Capital Markets analyst Michael Yee. “The industry and investors need rational scientific logic and an understanding of risks and benefits.”

Patient advocates welcomed the news.

Gottlieb “has firsthand experience at the FDA and as a physician that has treated patients understands the breadth of work that needs to be achieved on their behalf,” said Ellen Sigal, founder of Friends of Cancer Research.

(Reporting by Toni Clarke; Additional reporting by Deena Beasley; Editing by Alistair Bell and Lisa Shumaker)

Venezuela Congress begins measuring inflation amid cenbank silence

People queue to deposit their 100 bolivar notes, near Venezuela's Central Bank in Caracas, Venezuela December 16, 2016. REUTERS/Marco Bello

By Corina Pons and Brian Ellsworth

CARACAS (Reuters) – Venezuela’s opposition-led congress has started publishing the country’s inflation rate based on its own data collection, as the government of President Nicolas Maduro remains silent about the crisis-stricken nation’s soaring consumer prices.

The legislature has enlisted economics students to collect price data in five cities and asked former central bank employees to process it using the central bank’s methodology, said legislator Jose Guerra, an economist and former researcher at the bank.

Their measurements show prices rose 741 percent in the 12 months to February, 20.1 percent last month alone and 42.5 percent in the first two months of 2017.

Venezuela’s most recent official inflation figures, released last year, showed prices rising 180.9 percent in 2015.

“We’re not trying to substitute the central bank. We are filling the vacuum left by the central bank as a result of it not publishing the figures,” Guerra said in an interview.

The central bank did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.

Venezuela’s economy has been in free fall since the 2014 collapse of oil prices, which left the socialist economic system unable to maintain an elaborate system of subsidies and price controls that functioned during the oil boom years.

Maduro says his government is the victim of an “economic war” led by political adversaries with the help of Washington.

The government has kept quiet about fundamental economic indicators including economic growth and balance of payments amid an increasingly dire panorama of swelling supermarket lines and worsening shortages.

The absence of inflation figures has everyone from workers to business owners unable to make basic economic calculations.

“Workers don’t know what their salary is, companies don’t know what their costs are,” Guerra said. “There’s no way to calculate the real interest rate. There’s no way to calculate the real exchange rate.”

He said the project already has drawn the interest of Wall Street banks, which are closely monitoring the country’s economy on concerns it could default on its high-yielding dollar bonds.

Measuring inflation is unusually complicated in Venezuela, because consumer products as well as hard currency fetch vastly different prices depending on whether or not they are distributed to the socialist economy’s subsidy system.

Consumers can sometimes obtain basic goods at low-cost prices by waiting for hours in supermarket lines but increasingly have to buy such goods from smugglers on informal markets for more than 10 times the officially mandated prices.

(Writing by Brian Ellsworth; Editing by Alexandra Ulmer and Bill Trott)

Turkish tensions with Europe risk spilling into Switzerland

European Union (L) and Turkish flags fly outside a hotel in Istanbul, Turkey May 4, 2016. REUTERS/Murad Sezer/File Photo

By Michael Shields

ZURICH (Reuters) – Neutral Switzerland risks getting swept up in Turkey’s political row with European countries as Swiss authorities weigh how to handle Turks’ requests for asylum and a call to ban a rally on Sunday by Turkey’s foreign minister.

The government was keeping a low profile on Thursday, saying only that it was reviewing a request by financial capital Zurich to block a planned weekend appearance by Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu for security reasons.

The Hilton hotel booked for the rally canceled the event, saying organizers could not ensure the safety of guests and visitors.

It comes amid a series of speaking engagements to galvanize support among the Turkish community for President Tayyip Erdogan’s bid to increase his powers in a referendum on April 16.

The foreign ministry declined to comment on media reports that several Turks with diplomatic passports, including the second-ranking envoy in Bern, had sought asylum after President Tayyip Erdogan’s crackdown in the wake of a failed coup last year.

The State Secretariat for Migration, which handles asylum requests, said it does not comment on individual requests for refugee status. It referred instead to a government response this week to a parliamentary query on the matter.

That note said 408 Turkish citizens had sought asylum since the July coup attempt, including some holders of diplomatic passports. It said it could not comment further on the “very few individual cases” among diplomats for fear it could give away their identities.

Turkish embassy officials in Bern were not immediately available by phone and did not respond to an email seeking comment.

During a visit to neighboring Germany on Wednesday, Cavusoglu accused Berlin of hostility towards his country and Islam as acrimony between the NATO allies showed no sign of abating.

On Thursday, Chancellor Angela Merkel told Turkey to stop comparing the German government to the Nazis over the cancellation of Turkish ministers’ rallies in Germany, only for Cavusoglu to repeat the comparison.

Ankara is furious over the cancellations. Germany has said the rallies can go ahead if the organizers respect local laws, but has canceled several rallies, citing security concerns.

In Austria, the interior minister said this week he wanted to change legislation to permit a ban on foreign officials making speeches in Austria if human rights or public order were threatened, a move aimed at Turkish politicians.

Swiss government statistics show around 68,000 Turkish citizens live in Switzerland, a nation of 8.3 million whose population is a quarter foreign. The Turkish embassy’s website refers to around 130,000 Turkish citizens.

(Additional reporting by Brenna Hughes Neghaiwi; Editing by Hugh Lawson)

Berlin says Turkey has stepped up spying in Germany

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu meets his German counterpart Sigmar Gabriel in Berlin, Germany, March 8, 2017. Cem Ozdel/Turkish Foreign Ministry Press Office/Handout via Reuters

BERLIN (Reuters) – The German government said on Wednesday there had been a significant increase in Turkish spying in Germany, where tensions within the large Turkish community have escalated ahead of next month’s referendum on Turkey’s presidency.

The BfV domestic intelligence agency said divisions in Turkey leading up to the April 16 referendum on boosting the powers of President Tayyip Erdogan were mirrored in Germany.

At the same time, strained relations between Germany and Turkey, which soured after a failed army bid last July to overthrow Erdogan, reached a new low this month in a row over Turkish political rallies to drum up support in the referendum.

“The BfV is observing a significant increase in intelligence efforts by Turkey in Germany,” it said in a statement. No further details were provided.

Germany’s chief federal prosecutor launched an investigation in January into possible spying by clerics sent to Germany by Ankara.

Bfv President Hans-Georg Maassen underscored his concern over tensions between right-wing Turks in Germany and supporters of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).

“There is the danger that these proxy fights between PKK supporters and nationalist, right-wing extremist Turks will escalate because there is a high, hard-hitting potential for danger in both groups,” he said.

Maassen did not specifically address the issue of Turkish spying. He told reporters in January that Germany would not tolerate Turkish intelligence operations within its borders.

German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel on Wednesday met his Turkish counterpart Mevlut Cavusoglu in Berlin and said Turkey’s internal fights should not be imported into Germany.

(Reporting by Sabine Siebold, Writing by Andrea Shalal; Editing by Dominic Evans)

Trump backs House healthcare plan, says open to negotiations

The federal government forms for applying for health coverage are seen at a rally held by supporters of the Affordable Care Act, widely referred to as "Obamacare", outside the Jackson-Hinds Comprehensive Health Center in Jackson, Mississippi, U.S. on October 4, 2013. REUTERS/Jonathan Bachman/File Photo

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday backed a draft Republican proposal to dismantle Obamacare that was unveiled Monday, saying the proposed healthcare legislation was “out for review and negotiation.”

Trump, in a tweet on Tuesday morning, described the bill proposed by fellow Republicans in the House of Representatives as “Our wonderful new healthcare bill.”

The plan, released late on Monday, would undo Democratic President Barack Obama’s 2010 healthcare law, removing the penalty paid by Americans without insurance coverage and rolling back extra healthcare funding for the poor.

The plan was swiftly criticized by Democrats.

Although Obamacare has long been a common target of Republicans, the proposal also met with skepticism from some in the party who are concerned about the replacement plan’s tax credits for buying health insurance and changes to coverage under Medicaid, the government health insurance program for the poor.

The plan must pass both the Republican-led House of Representatives as well as the Senate, where it faces a higher bar for passage, making its future uncertain.

Trump was due to meet with the team of House lawmakers charged with tracking support for legislation later on Tuesday as lawmakers on two key House committees prepare to review the bill on Wednesday.

White House Office of Budget and Management Director Mick Mulvaney, speaking in a round of television interviews on Tuesday, said he expected the plan to pass the House before lawmakers leave for recess in mid-April.

Still, Obamacare remains popular with many Americans. Some 20 million previously uninsured Americans gained coverage under the law, although higher insurance premiums have angered some. Nearly half of those gained insurance under an expansion of Medicaid, which would end in 2020 under the Republicans’ new plan, then face funding caps.

Polls have shown most Americans want to maintain Medicaid’s expansion.

Some industry groups have also expressed concern that lawmakers are moving forward without knowing how much the new proposal will cost or how it will affect healthcare coverage. Mulvaney told CBS he expected the Congressional Budget Office’s review of the bill in a few days.

House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi said on CBS program “This Morning” that the Republican plan would take millions of people off health insurance rolls. “Show us the numbers about what the impact is personally on people,” she said.

(Reporting by Susan Heavey and Doina Chiacu; Editing by Frances Kerry)

China’s 2017 defense budget rise to slow again

Soldiers of China's People's Liberation Army (PLA) march during the military parade to mark the 70th anniversary of the end of World War Two, in Beijing, China, September 3, 2015. REUTERS/Damir Sagolj/File Photo

By Michael Martina and Philip Wen

BEIJING (Reuters) – Defying pressure for a strong increase in defense spending, China said on Saturday its military budget this year would grow about 7 percent, its slowest pace since 2010.

Last year, with China’s economy slowing, the defense budget recorded its lowest increase in six years, 7.6 percent, the first single-digit rise since 2010, following a nearly unbroken two-decade run of double-digit increases.

With the administration of new U.S. President Donald Trump proposing a 10 percent jump in military spending in 2017, and worries about potential disputes with the United States over the South China Sea and the status of Taiwan, some in China had been pressing for a forceful message from this year’s defense budget.

This week influential state-run tabloid the Global Times called for a rise of at least 10 percent to deal with the uncertainty brought by Trump, and a retired senior general told Hong Kong and Taiwan media that 12 percent would be needed to match the U.S. rise.

“It’s not enough,” a source with ties to senior Chinese officers told Reuters. “A lot of people in the military won’t be happy with this.”

Parliament spokeswoman Fu Ying, who announced the increase, said defense spending would account for about 1.3 percent of GDP, the same level as the past few years.

The actual number for defense spending will be released on Sunday, when China’s largely rubber-stamp parliament begins its annual session.

China’s economic growth target for 2017 is expected to be lowered to around 6.5 percent from last year’s 6.5-7 percent when Premier Li Keqiang gives his work report to parliament.

Last year normally talkative military delegates to parliament largely declined to talk to foreign media about the slowing rate of military spending, saying they had been ordered not to speak to foreign reporters.

NERVES RATTLED

China’s military build-up has rattled nerves around the region, particularly because China has taken an increasingly assertive stance in its territorial disputes in the East and South China Seas and over Taiwan, which China claims as its own.

Taiwan’s defense ministry expects China to continue to strengthen its military, spokesman Chen Chung-chi told Reuters, while a senior official at Japan’s defense ministry said the spending rise was still large and lacked transparency.

Takashi Kawakami, professor of international politics at Japan’s Takushoku University, said the small rate of increase showed China was taking a cautious approach with the new U.S. government, especially as Presidents Trump and Xi could meet soon.

“There was a view that China would increase its defense budget in line with the rise of the defense budget in the United States. But the fact China kept it at this level means it’s in a wait-and-see mode regarding the Trump administration.”

Spokeswoman Fu dismissed concerns about China’s military.

“Look at the past decade or so; there have been so many conflicts, even wars, around the world resulting in serious, large numbers of casualties and loss of property, so many refugees destitute and homeless. Which one has China caused?” she said.

There are other concerns for China’s military, including how to deal with the 300,000 troops President Xi Jinping announced in 2015 would be cut, mainly by the end of 2017.

Last month Chinese military veterans demonstrated in central Beijing for two consecutive days, demanding unpaid retirement benefits in a new wave of protests highlighting the difficulty in managing demobilized troops.

“It’s not yet certain what is going to happen to these people, and the military is clearly hoping for more money to deal with them,” one senior Beijing-based Asia diplomat said before this year’s defense budget was announced.

The defense budget figure for last year, 954.35 billion yuan ($138.4 billion), likely understates its investment, according to diplomats, though the number is closely watched around the region and in Washington for clues to China’s intentions.

A 7 percent rise for this year based on last year’s budget would bring the figure to 1.02 trillion yuan, still only a quarter or so of the U.S. defense budget.

The White House has proposed a 10 percent increase in military spending to $603 billion, even though the United States has wound down major wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and is already the world’s pre-eminent military power.

(Additional reporting by J.R. Wu in Taipei and Nobuhiro Kubo in Tokyo; Writing and additional reporting by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Will Waterman)

U.S.-allied militia agrees to hand villages to Syrian govt

FILE PHOTO: A road sign shows the direction to Manbij city, as seen from the western entrance of the city, in Aleppo Governorate, Syria June 19, 2016. The Arabic words read 'Under the Islamic State rule, you insure your self, money, religion and honour'. REUTERS/Rodi Said/File Photo

BEIRUT (Reuters) – A U.S.-allied militia in northern Syria said on Thursday it would hand over villages on a front line where it has been fighting Turkish-backed rebels to Syrian government control, under an agreement with Russia.

The villages will be surrendered to the Syrian government in the coming days, an official in the Manbij Military Council told Reuters. An earlier statement by the council said the villages would be handed to Syrian border guards.

Turkey’s Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu told reporters in Ankara the report was false, but added there was an agreement with Russia that Syrian government and opposition forces should not fight each other in that area.

The villages west of the city of Manbij have been a focus of fighting between the Turkish-backed rebels and the Manbij Military Council, the U.S.-allied militia, since Wednesday.

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said this week Manbij was the next target of Ankara’s campaign in northern Syria following the capture of nearby al-Bab from Islamic State last week.

“We will move towards Manbij after the al-Bab operation is completed, but the operation has not started yet. We know that the U.S. special forces are in that region, and we want the YPG to leave Manbij as soon as possible,” Cavusoglu said.

The Manbij Military Council is part of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a U.S.-backed group of militias that includes the powerful Kurdish YPG group. The SDF captured the area around Manbij from Islamic State militants last year.

Turkey’s campaign in Syria is aimed at driving Islamic State from its border and at preventing expansion in the area by the YPG, which it regards as an extension of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which is waging an insurgency against Ankara.

Cavusoglu said Turkey did not want the United States to continue cooperating with Kurdish groups and added that Turkey had repeatedly warned it would strike Kurdish militants if they remained in Manbij.

The multi-sided Syrian conflict began in 2011, drawing in regional states, the United States and Russia and leading to the country’s fragmentation into a patchwork of areas controlled by different armed groups.

(Reporting by Tom Perry and Angus McDowall in Beirut and Tulay Karadeniz and Ece Toksabay in Ankara; Editing by Andrew Roche)

Iran ready to give U.S. ‘slap in the face’: commander

Head of Iran's Revolutionary guards ground forces Mohammad Pakpour (C) attends a funeral ceremony in Tehran October 20, 2009. REUTERS/Morteza Nikoubazl

DUBAI (Reuters) – The United States should expect a “strong slap in the face” if it underestimates Iran’s defensive capabilities, a commander of the elite Revolutionary Guards said on Wednesday, as Tehran concluded war games.

Since taking office last month, U.S. President Donald Trump has pledged to get tough with Iran, warning the Islamic Republic after its ballistic missile test on Jan. 29 that it was playing with fire and all U.S. options were on the table.

“The enemy should not be mistaken in its assessments, and it will receive a strong slap in the face if it does make such a mistake,” said General Mohammad Pakpour, head of the Guards’ ground forces, quoted by the Guards’ website Sepahnews.

On Wednesday, the Revolutionary Guards concluded three days of exercises with rockets, artillery, tanks and helicopters, weeks after Trump warned that he had put Tehran “on notice” over the missile launch.

“The message of these exercises … for world arrogance is not to do anything stupid,” said Pakpour, quoted by the semi-official news agency Tasnim.

“Everyone could see today what power we have on the ground.” The Guards said they test-fired “advanced rockets” and used drones in the three-day exercises which were held in central and eastern Iran.

As tensions also mounted with Israel, a military analyst at Tasnim said that Iran-allied Hezbollah could use Iranian made Fateh 110 missiles to attack the Israeli nuclear reactor at Dimona from inside Lebanon.

Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said last Thursday that his group, which played a major role in ending Israel’s occupation of Lebanon, could strike Dimona.

“Since Lebanon’s Hezbollah is one of the chief holders of the Fateh 110, this missile is one of main alternatives for targeting the Dimona installations,” Hossein Dalirian said in a commentary carried by Tasnim.

Iran says its missile program is defensive and not linked to its 2015 nuclear deal with world powers. During the U.S. election race, Trump branded the accord “the worst deal ever negotiated”, telling voters he would either rip it up or seek a better agreement.

(Reporting by Dubai newsroom; Editing by Sami Aboudi and Alison Williams)

Philippine senator urges Cabinet to stop ‘sociopathic serial killer’ Duterte

Philippine Senator Leila de Lima gestures during a news conference at the Senate headquarters in Pasay city, metro Manila, Philippines September 22, 2016. REUTERS/Romeo Ranoco

MANILA (Reuters) – A staunch critic of Philippine leader Rodrigo Duterte on Tuesday urged the Cabinet to declare the president unfit to rule, describing him as a “sociopathic serial killer” because of his war on drugs and allegations he once ran a hit squad.

Senator Leila de Lima, one of the few high-profile critics of Duterte’s crackdown, said Filipinos should rise up and Cabinet ministers had the duty to save the country from a president “of criminal thinking”.

De Lima is facing arrest on charges of involvement in the drugs trade, which she says are a vendetta for her leading a Senate investigation of allegations that Duterte had ordered unlawful killings of criminals while mayor of Davao City.

Duterte denied unlawful killings and the Senate investigation found no evidence to prove that.

She said new allegations made on Monday by a retired policeman, Arturo Lascanas, that Duterte had operated a “Davao death squad” should clear up any uncertainty.

Duterte’s lawyer and his spokesmen have rejected Lascanas’ claims.

“With the coming out of Lascanas, there’s no more doubt that our president is a murderer and a sociopathic serial killer,” De Lima told reporters.

“I will not retreat from this fight now that I know I am not alone. We are plenty already, so they should be scared. I call on all our countrymen that have yet to act, to hold responsible the murderer president of the country.”

The war on drugs has broad public support despite the killing of more than 7,700 people since Duterte took office on June 30, about 2,500 in police operations.

The cause of other deaths are much in dispute, attributed by police to vigilantism, turf wars, or everyday murders unrelated to drugs. Activists are convinced many are extrajudicial killings, carried out by police or with their encouragement.

Asked at a regular news briefing about De Lima’s remarks, Duterte’s spokesman, Ernesto Abella, said: “That’s colourful language”.

De Lima and several associates were last week charged in drug-related cases, based on the testimony of convicts and former prison officials at last year’s congressional inquiry on the drug trade in jails.

She has yet to be arrested and has filed a motion to quash the charges on the grounds the court had no jurisdiction.

(Reporting by Neil Jerome Morales; Writing by Martin Petty; Editing by Robert Birsel)

France’s Le Pen cancels meet with Lebanon grand mufti over headscarf

Marine Le Pen, French National Front (FN) political party leader and candidate for the French 2017 presidential elections, stands in front of the logo of the Christian Lebanese Forces party during her meeting with Samir Geagea, leader of the party, in Maarab, north of Beirut, Lebanon February 21, 2017. REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir

By Simon Carraud

BEIRUT (Reuters) – French far-right National Front presidential candidate Marine Le Pen canceled a meeting on Tuesday with Lebanon’s grand mufti, its top cleric for Sunni Muslims, after refusing to wear a headscarf for the encounter.

Le Pen, among the frontrunners for the presidency, is using a two-day visit to Lebanon to bolster her foreign policy credentials nine weeks from the April 23 first round, and may be partly targeting potential Franco-Lebanese votes.

Many Lebanese fled to France, Lebanon’s former colonial power, during their country’s 1975-1990 civil war and became French citizens.

After meeting Christian President Michel Aoun – her first public handshake with a head of state – and Sunni Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri on Monday, she had been scheduled to meet the Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdul Latif Derian

He heads the Dar al-Fatwa, the top religious authority for Sunni Muslims in the multireligious country.

“I met the grand mufti of Al-Azhar,” she told reporters, referring to a visit in 2015 to Cairo’s 1,000-year-old center of Islamic learning. “The highest Sunni authority didn’t have this requirement, but it doesn’t matter.

“You can pass on my respects to the grand mufti, but I will not cover myself up,” she said.

The cleric’s press office said Le Pen’s aides had been informed beforehand that a headscarf was required for the meeting and had been “surprised by her refusal”.

But it was no surprise in the French political context.

French law bans headscarves in the public service and for high school pupils, in the name of church-state separation and equal rights for women. Le Pen wants to extend this ban to all public places, a measure that would affect Muslims most of all.

HARIRI’S VEILED MESSAGE

Buoyed by the election of President Donald Trump in the United States and by Britain’s vote to leave the European Union, Le Pen’s anti-immigration, anti-EU National Front (FN) hopes for similar populist momentum in France.

Like Trump, she has said radical Islamism must be faced head on, although she has toned down her party’s rhetoric to attract more mainstream support and possibly even woo some Muslim voters disillusioned with France’s traditional parties.

After meeting Hariri on Monday, Le Pen went against current French policy in Syria by describing President Bashar al-Assad as the “only viable solution” for preventing Islamic State from taking power in Syria.

Lebanon has some 1.5 million Syrian refugees.

“I explained clearly that … Bashar al-Assad was obviously today a much more reassuring solution for France than Islamic State would be if it came to power in Syria,” she told reporters.

Hariri, whose family has close links to conservative former French President Jacques Chirac and still has a home in France, issued a strongly-worded statement after their meeting.

“The most serious error would be to link Islam and Muslims on the one hand and terrorism on the other,” Hariri said.

“The Lebanese and Arabs, like most of the world, considers that France is the home of human rights and the republican state makes no distinction between citizens on ethnic, religious or class grounds.”

Speaking after meeting French President Francois Hollande in Paris, Walid Jumblatt, the main political leader of the minority Druze community in Lebanon, said Le Pen had “insulted” the Lebanese and Syrian people.

“I hope France will make a better choice than this fascist right. We cannot ask the Lebanese people to forget the crimes of the Syrian regime against it and we cannot return en masse (Syrians) while there is the Syrian regime. It’s a double insult,” he said.

Syria dominated Lebanese government and politics for years and had a military presence in the country until 2005, when it withdrew following the assassination of Saad’s father, former Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri, and months of anti-Syria protests.

(Additional reporting by Angus McDowall and Elizabeth Pineau in Paris; Writing by John Irish; Editing by Tom Heneghan)