PALACE INTRIGUE
Inside Lebanese PM’s ‘kidnap’ by Saudis
Saudi Arabia is holding Lebanese Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri against his will, sources close to him said Saturday, as details surrounding his forced resignation last week emerged.
Hariri landed in Riyadh on Nov. 3, a Friday, expecting a routine, cordial visit with the Saudi ruler, King Salman, who had summoned him to the foreign capital the day before. But it was not to be a normal visit. “When Hariri’s plane landed in Riyadh, he got the message immediately that something was wrong,” a Hariri source told Reuters. “There was no one waiting for him.”
Instead of being greeted on the tarmac by the usual lineup of Saudi princes or ministry officials, the Saudis confiscated his phone on the spot, Lebanese officials said.
Hariri told aides his trip to Riyadh would be quick. He expected later in the weekend to meet the presi- dent of Egypt at a Red Sea resort.
But on Saturday, Hariri appeared on Saudi-controlled television and read a prepared resignation statement into the camera. He hasn’t been heard from since. Hariri — who has a home in Riyadh — has given no indication of when he’d be back in Lebanon.
On his last trip to Saudi Arabia, just a few days before, Hariri had met with senior Saudi intelligence at the behest of the king’s son, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who is widely regarded as the true power behind the throne.
He’d returned from the meeting “pleased and relaxed,” saying he’d heard “encouraging statements” from the crown prince, including a promise for a Saudi aid package.
But Lebanese officials fear that during that meeting, Hariri failed to take a hard-enough stance against Hezbollah, the Shia Islamist group hated by Saudi Arabia — and included in Lebanon’s coalition government.
In his apparently forced resignation speech, Hariri said he feared assassination and he accused Iran of working with Hezbollah in sowing strife in the Arab world.
Lebanese President Michel Aoun has privately told foreign ambassadors that Hariri has been kidnapped.
But publicly, Aoun would only say Saturday that Hariri is “in a dubious and mysterious situation” and that any move or comment by him “does not reflect reality.”
White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in a statement on Saturday that Washington calls upon “all states and parties to respect Lebanon's sovereignty, independence and constitutional processes.”