Lebanon’s PM quits over Iran tensions and concern for his safety
Saturday 4 November 2017
EXCERPT:
Saad Hariri has unexpectedly resigned as Lebanon’s prime minister, citing Iranian influence across the region and claiming he feared the same fate as his assassinated father if he remained leader.
In a speech delivered from the Saudi capital of Riyadh on Saturday, Hariri blindsided both his government and staff in Beirut, bringing a dramatic end to an 11-month government that had largely failed to impose authority on a parliament split along regional lines, or on an economy weighed down by debt and corruption.
The timing and location of the announcement suggested more was at stake than the immediate future of Lebanon. Saudi Arabia, a Hariri patron, has been rallying support in recent weeks to challenge its rival Iran, which it believes is months away from securing unprecedented influence in the region.
It also followed sharpened anti-Iran rhetoric from Washington, and the release during the week of a trove of documents seized from Osama bin Laden’s hideout in 2011, which appear to suggest that al-Qaida received support from Iranian officials.
Hariri said Iran “has a desire to destroy the Arab world and has boasted of its control of the decisions in all the Arab capitals. Hezbollah imposed a reality in Lebanon through force of arms, and their intervention causes us big problems with all our Arab allies”.
The Saudi minister for gulf affairs, Thamer al-Sabhan, who is a vocal critic of Iran, tweeted: “The hands of treachery and aggression will be cut off.”
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Thanks for the link.