Bad day sees Lebanon PM reversal, Syria summit
DUBAI: Saudi diplomacy did not have a good day on Wednesday, and the kingdom’s bullish 32-year-old crown prince is seen as the driving force behind the foreign policy blunders.
On one side, Lebanon’s Prime Minister Saad Hariri, a Saudi ally, walked back his resignation, which had shocked the tiny nation when he broadcast it from Riyadh almost three weeks ago. Some say his resignation was carried out under direct instructions from his Saudi patrons.
On the same day, Saudi Arabia’s main rival, Shia power Iran, stepped into the limelight by taking part in a summit in Russia on Syria’s future.
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the son of King Salman, is seen as being behind most of Saudi Arabia’s major decisions. MBS, as he is known, is accused in some quarters of being adventurist and impulsive in his foreign policy approaches in Yemen and Lebanon, as well as in the crisis with Qatar.
Moves by MBS to ramp up tensions with Iran, which backs Lebanon’s Hezbollah, have had little success in actually rolling back Iranian influence in key counties like Iraq and Syria.
While the Saudis may have known ahead of time that Hariri would reverse his resignation, it was still seen as a public blow to the kingdom. Many Lebanese even questioned whether Saudi Arabia had been holding Hariri against his will in Riyadh.
Hariri’s Saudi-backed political play may pressure the Shia Hezbollah to limit its role in regional conflicts but the militant group is still a major force in Lebanon.
Meanwhile, in Russia’s Sochi, President Vladimir Putin was hosting his counterparts from Iran and Turkey. Though Turkey backs the Syrian opposition, it has agreed to ceasefires to reduce violence with Assad’s main backers, Iran and Russia. The three are all seen as the dominant players in the war-torn country.
Despite Saudi efforts and those of others backing the Syrian opposition, no force on the ground seems capable of driving Assad out at this stage.