Lebanese leader quits ‘in fear of his life’
LEBANON’S prime minister resigned yesterday, accusing Iran of interfering in his country and saying he fears an assassination plot.
Saad al-Hariri announced his resignation from Saudi Arabia and the move appeared to have been done in co-ordination with Riyadh, which sees Iran as an arch-rival to be countered across the Middle East.
“The evil that Iran spreads in the region will backfire on it,” Mr Hariri said in a televised address. “Despite my efforts, Iran continues to abuse Lebanon.” He also said his life was in danger and he believed he was being targeted like his father, the former prime minister Rafik al-Hariri, who was killed by a car bomb in 2005.
“We are living in a climate similar to the atmosphere that prevailed before the assassination of martyr Rafik alHariri. I have sensed what is being plotted covertly to target my life,” he said.
Mr Hariri also lashed out against Hizbollah, the Lebanese militant group which plays a major role in the country’s politics and is supported by Iran.
Hizbollah’s armed wing is considered a terrorist group by the US, UK and most Gulf Arab states. New American sanctions imposed on the group may harm Lebanon’s economy.
Mr Hariri said the group’s actions had put Lebanon “in the eye of the storm”. He had been in the role a little over a year and his resignation plunges Lebanon into uncertainty after what had appeared to be a period of political progress in the small Middle East state.
In October, the parliament passed its first budget since 2005 and last year it successfully elected a president, end- ing a stand-off which had left it without a head of state for more than two years. The economy has been struggling. Under Lebanon’s complicated power sharing system, the role of prime minister must be held by a Sunni Muslim, while the president is Christian and the speaker of the house is a Shia.
Michael Aroun, the president, is closely aligned with Hizbollah and Mr Hariri’s resignation may remove one of the few anti-Hizbollah bulwarks inside the Lebanese government.
Mr Hariri announced he was stepping down after a flurry of visits to Saudi Arabia. He travelled to the Sunni kingdom earlier this week and met the Thamer al-Sabhan, the Saudi minister for Gulf affairs, who takes a hawkish stance against Iranian influence in the region. Iran immediately cast Mr Hariri’s resignation as part of a US-Saudi plan for control in the Middle East.
The Saudi military shot down a missile fired from Yemen towards Riyadh’s airport yesterday. Unconfirmed Saudi reports said the missile was an Iranianmade Burkan 2H, likely fired by the Houthi rebel group in Yemen.