French president back in Beirut following his after-blast visit

French President Emmanuel Macron returned to Lebanon on Monday for a two-day visit aimed at charting a way out for the country's crisis.

Macron was received at the airport by President Michel Aoun and a delegation of Lebanese ministers.

He told reporters at the airport that the mission of the new government was to implement reforms in many areas of political and economic activity.

But his first meeting wasn’t with the new prime minister-designate, Mustapha Adib, appointed hours earlier, nor with the country’s feuding politicians or civil society activists.

Macron instead chose to see Lebanon’s No. 1 diva Fairouz, a national symbol and one of the rare figures in Lebanon who's beloved and respected across the country.

The reclusive singer, arguably the most well-known and respected in the Arab world, is now 86 years old and has rarely been seen in public in recent years.

But many Lebanese still start their day listening to her songs - usually with a good dose of nostalgia - and continue to see her as a unifying figure in a country plagued with conflict.

The meeting with Fairouz is a personal gesture from Macron, whose deep engagement with Lebanon has been denounced by his critics as a neocolonialist foray into a former French protectorate.

Macron’s defenders, however, including Beirut residents enraged at their own leaders, have praised him for visiting gutted neighbourhoods in the wake of the Aug. 4 explosion that tore through their capital.