I will return very soon, vows Lebanon’s prime minister
Supporters of Saad Hariri, whose movements have been ‘restricted’, demand release from Saudi Arabia
LEBANON’S Prime Minister Saad Hariri has said he will return to his country “very soon” in his first televised interview since he resigned in Saudi Arabia last week and then went to ground.
Mr Hariri spoke on Sunday in a live interview to his station Future TV, after pressure from Lebanese officials who said his resignation was not accepted because it was declared in Saudi Arabia. Michel Aoun, Lebanon’s president, had alleged Mr Hariri was being held against his will in Saudi Arabia. But Mr Hariri told the TV interviewer “I am free,” before adding that he decided to resign to save the country from imminent danger.
Without elaborating, Mr Hariri promised to return to Lebanon “very soon … in days.” Many Lebanese believe Mr Hariri, who heads the Sunni Al-mustaqbal (Future Movement) bloc backed by Saudi, has been forced to stand down and is now being held against his will. “We are all angry,” said Fadi Abdullah, a shop owner in west Beirut. “Not everyone may agree with Hariri’s politics, but he is our prime minister.”
A picture of the prime minister appeared this week on the front of a popular daily newspaper below the headline “The Hostage”.
Next to Mr Hariri was a photograph of the man they alleged to be his captor: Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Saudi Arabia’s crown prince.
“The Saudis have gone too far this time,” Mr Abdullah said.
Mr Aoun yesterday said that Mr Hariri, has been “restricted” in his movements and criticised “the obscure circumstances in which Mr Hariri is staying in Riyadh.
The situation has “reached the point where Mr Hariri’s freedom has been restricted, and conditions have been imposed regarding his residence and the contacts he may have, even with his family”, a statement said.
“These circumstances mean that any positions he may have taken, that he will take, or that may be attributed to him... are doubtful, and cannot be seen as positions taken on his own initiative,” the statement added.
Mr Hariri’s resignation is seen by many as the first step in an unprece- dented Saudi intervention in Lebanese politics and the opening up of a new front in its proxy war with foe Iran.
Lebanon, a small state made up of a roughly equal number of Sunni and Shiite Muslims, has been exploited for decades by both Riyadh and Tehran. But never has Beirut seen quite such an affront to its sovereignty.
“The Saudis appear to have decided that the best way to really confront Iran is to start in Lebanon,” a European diplomat told The Daily Telegraph.
With Iranian power winning out in Iraq and Syria, and the kingdom bogged down in a war with Iran-allied groups in Yemen, it is hoping to bring political and economic turmoil to a country where Tehran had appeared ascendant. Iran-backed Hizbollah, the only party not to disarm after Lebanon’s civil war ended in 1990, has since grown more powerful even than the country’s army.
In his scripted resignation speech, Mr Hariri repeated Saudi’s favourite talking point: an empowered Iran is a threat not just to Lebanon but the world. After Friday prayers at the Mohammad al-amin Mosque, nicknamed the Hariri Mosque because of its connections to the political dynasty in Beirut, news of the missing premier was the only topic of conversation.
Some who spoke to The Daily Telegraph regard Prince bin Salman, who has been consolidating his grip on power since he became crown prince in June, as a strongman and the emboldened Saudi Arabia a necessary bulwark against Iran and Hizbollah.
To others the 32-year-old, known by his nickname MBS, is an ambitious “playboy” who does not have the political nous to be interfering in international affairs.
“MBS is a wealthy, arrogant young prince without experience,” said a supporter. “Whatever you think of Iran, it would never screw with the Lebanese people like the prince is [doing] now.”