Beirut ‘hold’ on Hariri resignation until return

BEIRUT, Nov 5, (Agencies): Lebanon’s president will not accept the resignation of prime minister Saad alHariri until he returns to Lebanon, palace sources said on Sunday, delaying for now politically difficult consultations on his successor.

Hariri left Lebanon for Saudi Arabia on Friday and resigned on Saturday in a televised statement that took the Lebanese political establishment by surprise.

He cited an assassination plot against him and criticised the regional role of Iran and its Lebanese ally Hezbollah however Lebanon’s army said on Sunday it had not uncovered any plot.

The move has thrust Lebanon back into the arena of regional rivalry between Sunni Muslim Saudi Arabia, an ally of Hariri, and Shiite Muslim Iran, which backs Hezbollah.

President Michel Aoun, a political ally of Hezbollah, will wait to accept or reject Hariri’s resignation until he returns to Lebanon to explain his reasons, sources at the presidential palace said.

Saudi-owned newspaper Asharq alAwsat cited unnamed sources close to Hariri as speculating that he would probably remain outside Lebanon because of the security threat against him.

Central Bank Governor Riad Salameh sought to calm fears the political turmoil unleashed by Hariri’s bid to resign would hit Lebanon’s already fragile economy, issuing a statement to reaffirm the stability of its currency, which is pegged against the US dollar.

In Lebanon’s sectarian system the president must be a Maronite Catholic, the prime minister a Sunni and the speaker of parliament a Shi’ite. Hariri is Lebanon’s most influential Sunni politician.

His father, Rafik al-Hariri, was prime minister after Lebanon’s 1975-1990 civil war and was assassinated in a car bombing in 2005.

A UN-backed tribunal has indicted five Hezbollah members for the killing but the group denies any involvement.

Saudi media have published reports of a plot to assassinate Hariri in recent days, but all of Lebanon’s main security branches have said they have no information about such a plot.

A Saudi minister said on Saturday that Hariri’s personal security detail had “confirmed information” about the plot. Thamer al-Sabhan said in an interview with a Lebanese TV station on Saturday that there are “threats against the prime minister and the Kingdom is keen for his security”.

Meanwhile, Bahrain ordered its citizens in Lebanon to “leave immediately” Sunday after the country’s prime minister resigned in a sudden televised address, citing Iranian meddling in Lebanese and regional affairs.

Bahrain’s Foreign Ministry said citizens were banned from traveling to Lebanon, as well.

Bahrain is a bellwether nation for the Saudi Arabia-dominated Gulf Cooperation Council and often the first to announce sanctions and travel bans, usually targeting countries seen as close to Iran.

GCC member states banned travel to Lebanon in 2016 after Lebanon’s Foreign Minister refused to condemn mob attacks on Saudi diplomatic missions in Iran.

Prime Minister Saad Hariri upended Lebanese politics with his surprise resignation Saturday.

He delivered it in a televised address from Saudi Arabia, leading his supporters and detractors in Lebanon to speculate he received orders to step down from Saudi Arabia, widely seen as his patron. He is not believed to have returned to Lebanon.

Hariri became prime minister in late 2016 in a coalition government that included the Shiite militant group Hezbollah, one of Saudi Arabia’s chief detractors in the region. He could not have formed a government without the group, which operates its own militia freely in Lebanon. Hezbollah and its allies have been given veto power in Lebanese politics since Hezbollah forces seized the streets of Beirut in brief clashes in 2008. Their political bloc controls the largest shares of seats in Lebanon’s parliament.