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SAAD HARIRI SENT shockwaves through Lebanon when he resigned as Prime Minister unexpectedly last week.
He has since given an interview from Saudi Arabia and said that he was “free” in the kingdom but the Lebanese President Michel Aoun has said he believes Hariri is being held against his will.
Lebanon has become a central focus for multiple tensions in the region, with Saudi Arabia and Iran heavily involved while western countries have called for stability.
So, what’s going on here? Why did Hariri resign? And what could it mean for the region?
Last week, Hariri announced his resignation as Prime Minister in a televised address from Saudi Arabia, citing Iranian influence in Lebanese affairs.
Announcing it in such a way fueled speculation that the Saudi royal family had forced him to step aside.
He made the announcement on 4 November, but didn’t make any other statements for over a week. When his private plane returned to Lebanon, he wasn’t on it.
Speculation abound that Hariri, who is a Saudi national, was forced to resign and even given a script by Saudi officials.
Reuters reported that Hariri had his phone confiscated when he touched down in Saudi Arabia.
Lebanese authorities, meanwhile, demanded the return of Hariri to the country.
“Today we demand the return to the nation of our Prime Minister Saad Hariri,” tweeted Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil on Thursday.
The foreign minister is the son-in-law of Lebanese President Michel Aoun, who has not yet accepted Hariri’s resignation and is awaiting his return before taking any decision.
As of today, he has not yet returned.
This crisis for Lebanon is coming against the backdrop of increasing tensions between Iran and Saudi Arabia, who both support different regimes across a number of Middle-East countries.
Lebanon is currently split into camps led by Hariri and Iranian-backed Hezbollah, and it is feared Hariri’s shock resignation could plunge the country into violence.
Hariri spoke for the first time in a week in an interview on Sunday. Appearing nervous, he said his life was under threat in Lebanon and that he was free in Saudi Arabia. He also said he would return home “soon”.
Crucially, he also said he would consider rescinding his resignation if Lebanese factions seriously committed to keeping out of conflicts in Syria and Yemen, where both Saudi Arabia and Iran have opposing interests.
Hezbollah said this interview showed that Hariri was coerced into the resignation and dismissed suggestions it was threatening the Prime Minister’s life.
Both Saudi Arabia and Iran have denied interfering in Lebanese politics.
Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson Bahram Ghassemi said: “Lebanon’s internal affairs concern Lebanon, and we never intervene in the internal affairs of other countries.
Hariri’s resignation was sudden and suspect, but we hope that with his interview last night, he will return to Lebanon as soon as possible so that the legal process of his resignation can be applied.
The Saudis and the Iranians have been locked in a fierce war of words since Hariri’s resignation.
Several hours after it was broadcast, Saudi Arabia said its air defences near Riyadh intercepted and destroyed a missile fired from Yemen, where a Saudi-led coalition is battling Iran-backed Shiite rebels.
Saudi Arabia’s powerful Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman accused Iran of “direct military aggression”. Tehran denied any involvement in the missile attack, with President Hassan Rouhani warning that Iranian “might” fend off any challenge.
Max Abrahms, professor of political science at Northeastern University in Boston, said that having more or less eradicated the Islamic State, the countries are renewing old rivalries.
As the threat from a common enemy “has imploded, tensions between these historic adversaries have escalated”, he said.
“The Saudi-Iranian rivalry has become the organising principle for Mideast alliances, reminiscent of how the Cold War divided countries along US and Soviet lines,” Abrahms said.
Although highly unlikely to escalate to a full-on war, the countries appear to still want to get the upper hand on the other, with Lebanon the current battleground for this aim.
The EU has urged stability in the region, with its diplomatic chief Federica Mogherini calling for unity.
She said: “We expect no external interference in this national agenda and we believe it is essential to avoid importing into Lebanon regional conflicts, regional dynamics, regional tensions that have to stay out of the country.”
Germany’s foreign minister Sigmar Gabriel, meanwhile, said: “Lebanon has earned the right to decide on its fate by itself and not become a pinball of Syria or Saudi Arabia or other national interests.”
With reporting from AFP
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The fact of the matter is ISRAEL wants to destroy Lebanon……of course they will start it and play the victim as usual…..
@Johnnathan Biskalero: they destroyed Lebanon already. The real aim is to destroy Iran
@Johnnathan Biskalero: Hezbollah have been armed and financed by the Iranian and Syrian regimes for decades. It is a private army controlled by religious fanatics as opposed to the Official and Sovereign Lebanese Army. No other Soverign country would tolerate any other large heavily armed force other than the Offical Military but because of the sheer amount of heavy weaponry in this organisation’s control the Government of Lebanon are simply powerless to do anything about it.
@Paul Devlin: Why did they attack Lebanon?
@Johnnathan Biskalero: Agreed. This is a Shia Sunni conflict and Israel and Saudi Arabia have started to work togethet to defeat areas where Iranian assistance is evident in. Ie Syria ,Iraq,Yemen. American intervention in the ME has thrown the shia sunni regime patterns out of sink. Now Iraq is governed by a shia regime. This article leaves out the elephant in the room again (Israel). This could have serious consequences for Lebanon.
@Johnnathan Biskalero: do you realise that everything in the middle East is blamed on Israel and is an easy scapegoat how’s about Iran and Saudi stop fighting In the playground and stop using Yemen as their proxy war while innocent kids and babies are starved due to Muppets like the Iranians and Saudis
@Johnnathan Biskalero:
Rubbish- the last thing Israel wants is an unstable Lebanon.
@saoirse janneau:
So Sunni Saudi Arabia conspired to put a Shia government in place in Iraq??
Okaaaayyyyy….
@Avina Laaf: read my message again. American intervention in the ME has changed the shia sunni ratio there. Didn’t mention Saudi Arabia. They ousted Sadaam who was sunni. What’s in there now? Israel has everything to do with conflict in the ME. They feel severely threatened by the shia regions. That’s why they’ve gotten into bed with the old enemy SA
@Paul Devlin: Well they are Gods Chosen People,so they can do what they want , just ask the Palestinians.
@saoirse janneau:
So are the Saudis and the US in cahoots or not?
BTW, you do realise that Israel’s most immediate enemy (Hamas) are Sunni?
@James Grant: I am tired of talking to people that cannot grasp the situation…..Iraq was invaded on a pack of lies over a million plus dead on a pack of lies…..here is Benjamin Netanyahu calling for the REMOVAL of Saddam…..and Israel are just the innocent victim, give me a break man !! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nN1HOVLf4C0 BIBI “No Question”
@Avina Laaf: I would disagree with you there…..
@Johnnathan Biskalero: I wonder where the evidence of WMD came from….mmmmm let me think !!
@Mick Jordan: “No other Soverign country would tolerate any other large heavily armed force other than the Official Military” so would you agree that Syria has the right to fire on Israel as Israel are arming terrorists in Syria ? are we agreed ?
@Johnnathan Biskalero: Israel are “disarming” terrorists Hezbollah with their fine airforce from time to time in Syria.
@Johnnathan Biskalero: Who are Isreal arming? The Druze, the Christians, the Sunni’s?
Incredible what Saudi Arabia is up to they also holding the Yemeni PM hostage.
@Austin Rock:
Any evidence of that?
@Avina Laaf: Not hard to find: https://www.alaraby.co.uk/english/news/2017/11/7/yemeni-president-hadi-under-house-arrest-in-riyadh
@Bluepoolroad:
A single claim from an unnamed source. Not saying it’s necessarily wrong – my first post was a genuine question – but it’d want to be a more credible report before I’d take it as gospel.
The only countries that are ramping up are Israel, US and Saudi Arabia……look at the death and destruction they have caused…..spreading democracy on packs of lies……Greater Israel Project…..people need to wake up !!
@Johnnathan Biskalero:
Or it just could be the 1400 year old Shia v Sunni regional power struggle that continues today.
@Johnnathan Biskalero: I wondered how long it would take the anti-Semitic conspiracy nutjobs to try blame Israel. It’s a Sunni Shia conflict, nothing to do with Israel. If Saudi Arabia wants to flex it’s muscle against Iran then so be it, it will be lauded in Israel all right but to claim Israel dictates Saudi policy is up there with blaming Israel for 9/11.
@Richard Keogh: do you know what Semitic means ?
Robert Fisks’ book Pity the Nation is well worth a read if you’re interested in Lebanon/Middle east.
Another Journal “explainer” that explains nothing – still far more questions than answers about Hariri’s resignation.
Israel, Saudi, US, UK and France against Iran.
the usual racists pointing the finger at the Jews (that’s what they really mean when they say “Israel”)
@Dean Anderson: Wrong.
@Pat Price: He’s completely right.
The West is extremely lucky that the Schism between Sunni and Shia prevails.
@Brian O Reilly: yeah US/ISRAEL/ had nothing to do with the invasion of Iraq and the destruction of Syria on packs of lies……..that is just a side show right ? Over a million plus dead on packs of lies……what are you people on ?
Because of a 1400 year old sectarian war in the Middle East between the Shias and the Sunnis as Iran and Saudi Arabia can show…
have your say