Lebanese leader, Syria make for tough day for Saudi Arabia

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Saudi diplomacy is not having a good day — in fact, it’s a double whammy — 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, on Wednesday walked back his resignation, which had shocked the tiny nation when he broadcast it from the Saudi capital, Riyadh, almost three weeks ago. Some say his resignation was carried out under direct instructions from his Saudi patrons.

Also Wednesday, Saudi Arabia’s main rival, Shiite 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 neighboring 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.

The kingdom has accused Iran of supplying Yemen’s Shiite rebels with a missile that targeted Riyadh earlier this month. The missile was intercepted by Saudi defenses but it was the deepest a rebel projectile had made it into the kingdom. Tehran denies arming Yemen’s rebels.

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, which some in Lebanon accused of having orchestrated the Nov. 4 resignation in the first place. 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 Shiite Hezbollah to limit its role in regional conflicts but the militant group is still a major force in Lebanon.

Close Saudi allies such as France and Egypt have cautioned against instability in Lebanon and spoken out against rising tensions with

Iran. France’s President Emmanuel Macron’s mediation succeeded in getting Hariri out of Saudi Arabia to Paris for a few days.

Bilal Hussein The Associated Press Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri speaks to supporters outside his residence Wednesday in Beirut. Hariri returned to Lebanon a day earlier and in a surprise decision, said he was putting his resignation on hold.