Lebanon Plunges Into Crisis After Premier Resigns, Fearing Assassination Plot

[Swordsmyth]

The Lebanese Prime Minister, Saad al-Hariri, unexpectedly resigned on Saturday, saying in a fiery televised broadcast from Saudi Arabia that he feared for his life while also fiercely criticizing Iran. According to regional analysts, the move has "plunged Lebanon into crisis" amid heightened regional tensions.
In his resignation speech, Hariri - whose farther, former prime minister Rafik al-Hariri, was assassinated in 2005 - fired a vicious tirade against Iran and its Lebanese proxy Hezbollah group for what he said was their meddling in Arab affairs and said that "Iran's arms in the region will be cut off." Accusing Iran of sowing "fear, chaos, strife and destruction" throughout the region, including Lebanon, Hariri said that "the evil that Iran spreads in the region will backfire on it."

Hariri's resignation was unprecedented in the way it was announced, in a televised address from an undisclosed location in Riyadh. In his speech, Hariri suggested he feared for his life and said the climate in the country is similar to the one that existed before his father, the late prime minister Rafik Hariri, was assassinated in 2005.

More at: http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-1...ssination-plot

[Swordsmyth]

The president of Lebanon will not accept the resignation of Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri until he returns from Saudi Arabia, palace sources said Nov. 5, delaying politically difficult consultations on his successor, according to a report from Reuters.

More at: https://worldview.stratfor.com/situa...ation-until-he

[Swordsmyth]

Bahrain is ordering all its citizens in Lebanon to "leave immediately" after the country's prime minister resigned and pointed to Iranian meddling in Lebanese and regional affairs, The New York Times reported Nov. 5. Bahrain's Foreign Ministry said its citizens are banned from traveling to Lebanon, as well.

https://worldview.stratfor.com/situa...-leave-lebanon

[Swordsmyth]

Lebanese Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri departed Saudi Arabia and arrived in the United Arab Emirates, Reuters reported Nov. 7. Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan said his country stands by Lebanon in the face of regional challenges and interference that impedes its developments and threatens its security.

More at: https://worldview.stratfor.com/situa...udi-arabia-uae

[Swordsmyth]

Lebanon FM demands return of Hariri from Saudi Arabia

https://www.yahoo.com/news/lebanon-fm-demands-return-hariri-saudi-arabia-164149027.html

[Swordsmyth]

Macron to hold Lebanon crisis talks in Saudi Arabia

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5067369/Emmanuel-Macron-hold-Lebanon-crisis-talks-Saudi.html?ITO=1490&ns_mchannel=rss&ns_campaign=14 90

[Swordsmyth]

Lebanese patriarch plans to meet Hariri in Saudi Arabia

http://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-lebanon-politics-patriarch/lebanese-patriarch-plans-to-meet-hariri-in-saudi-arabia-spokesman-idUKKBN1D92EF

[Swordsmyth]

Hezbollah Leader Says Saudi Arabia Has Declared War On Lebanon

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-11-10/hezbollah-leader-says-saudi-arabia-has-declared-war-lebanon

[Swordsmyth]

Misadventures of the Clown Prince MBS:

It is becoming more difficult to hide the mess the Saudi clown prince Mohammad bin Salman creates. ...

The clown prince of Saudi Barbaria practically abducted the Prime Minister of Lebanon, blackmailed him to resign and holds him since under house arrest. This is an unprecedented attack on the sovereignty of Lebanon and all other countries. Yet the U.S. and some European leaders cowardly pretend that Saad Hariri is free to go ...

Hariri ... is as free to leave his current residence as Julian Assange in free to leave the Ecuadorian embassy in London. ...

It is obvious that Hariri did not travel to Saudi Arabia last Saturday with the intent to resign from his job:
Hariri had scheduled meetings in Beirut on the following Monday – with the IMF, the World Bank and a series of discussions on water quality improvement; not exactly the action of a man who planned to resign his premiership. ...

The unofficial version of Hariri's meeting with the U.S. and French ambassador is diverging from the one above:

Mr. Hariri, a dual citizen of Lebanon and Saudi Arabia, met the ambassadors of Britain and the European Union and the chargé d’affaires from the American Embassy on Wednesday and Thursday at his Riyadh residence. Other Western diplomats, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said that those envoys, too, came away with the impression that he could not speak freely.

Even the State Department spokesperson lets slip that Harairi is not free to go:

"We have seen him. In terms of the conditions of him being held or the conversations between Saudi Arabia and Prime Minister Hariri, I would have to refer you to the government of Saudi Arabia and also to Mr Hariri's office."

Hariri's own political party in Lebanon has united with its enemy Hizbullah and the Christian President Aoun in a call for Hariri to come back and explain himself to the Lebanese people:

“The return of the head of the Lebanese government, the national leader and the head of al-Mustaqbal Movement Saad Hariri is necessary to restore respect for Lebanon's balance at home and abroad, in the framework of full respect for the Lebanese legitimacy represented in the Constitution and the Taef Accord and in respecting the Arab and international legitimacies,” said Mustaqbal in a statement issued after an emergency meeting for its parliamentary bloc and political bureau.

The Saudis have told their citizens in Lebanon to leave the country. Its allies Kuwait, UAE and Bahrain have followed suit. ...

Without the 160,000 Lebanese book keepers and managers the Saudi economy would probably collapse.

The similarities with the idiotic Saudi campaign against Qatar is obvious. ...

The French and other countries' cowardliness towards the clown prince extends to the starving of Yemen. UN flights with immediately needed medical supplies and food have been blocked by Saudi authorities. The ports for food shipment are blockaded. UN officials warn of an imminent massive famine and are begging everyone to intervene. But nothing has been heard from Macron or any other "western" politician.

Meanwhile the Saudi tyrant's purge ... continues. Some 500 people have been arrested ...

One important aspect of the purge is the open robbery that is part of it. ... The Wall Street Journal reports that the people around MbS expect to steal up to $800 billion in assets from the ultra rich businessmen and princes they have now under their control. ...

Who will be willing to invest even a penny in Saudi Arabia after such a shakedown? There is no rule of law and there are no reliable courts. ...

Trump had voiced full support for the Saudi moves. ... Secretary of State Tillerson is finally rowing back Trump's grandstanding. ...

On Lebanon Tillerson warns Israel of any intervention. ... He does not recognize the compelled "resignation" ...

The two steps on Lebanon and on the internal purge seem too impulsive to be part of a greater plan. They begin to look like the other "adventures" MbS started in Qatar and Yemen. Aimless campaigns ... In all these cases the long term damage to Saudi Arabia will be huge.

Any day now the clown prince will become king of Saudi Arabia. ... his country is unlikely to survive another five years of such impulsive and tyrannic behavior. ...

As another example of MbS' impulsiveness re-consider this episode. In 2016 Salman spontaneously bought a used motor-barge for $550 million ... The boat had been constructed since 2007 and launched in 2011. Its price then was $330 million (€300m) ... After five years of use its the fair value was probably two-third of the original price. MbS paid 250% of the actual value because he wanted the boat right then and there and because he could. A thirty year old, who has never worked to make money, wasted $330 million on an impulse buy. Money that would rightfully belong to the people of the Arab peninsula. ...

...

[Swordsmyth]

Rex Tillerson warns Iran and Saudi Arabia: don't use Lebanon for 'proxy conflicts'

https://www.yahoo.com/news/former-lebanese-prime-minister-does-113418438.html

[Swordsmyth]

Saad al-Hariri, who announced his resignation as prime minister on Nov. 4 while in Saudi Arabia, said on Nov. 12 that he would return to Lebanon within days, Reuters reported.

More at: https://worldview.stratfor.com/situa...rn-within-days

[Swordsmyth]

Lebanese Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri will travel from Saudi Arabia to France within 48 hours, upon French President Emmanuel Macron's invitation, before returning to Lebanon to officially resign, Reuters reported Nov. 16.

https://worldview.stratfor.com/situa...ally-resigning

[Swordsmyth]

Saad al-Hariri attended independence day celebrations in Beirut on Wednesday after returning to Lebanon for the first time since resigning as prime minister in a broadcast from Saudi Arabia.Hariri, whose sudden resignation on Nov. 4 pitched Lebanon into crisis, flew into Beirut late on Tuesday. He stood alongside President Michel Aoun and Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri at a military parade in central Beirut.
Lebanese state officials and senior politicians close to Hariri say Riyadh forced him to quit and held him in the kingdom, which Saudi Arabia and Hariri have denied. The resignation took even Hariri's aides by surprise.
A long-time Saudi ally, Hariri cited fear of assassination in his resignation speech, and attacked Iran and its powerful Lebanese Shi'ite ally Hezbollah for sowing strife in the Arab world.
The resignation thrust Lebanon to the forefront of regional tussle between the Sunni monarchy of Saudi Arabia and Shi'ite Islamist Iran, which backs Hezbollah.
Hariri's return to Lebanon followed an intervention by France. It is not yet clear if he will stick by his resignation or rescind it.

More at: https://www.yahoo.com/news/hariri-ba...070202678.html

[Swordsmyth]

And, in the latest Wednesday morning development in this ongoing saga, Hariri said he has changed his mind and has puts his resignation on hold at the request of the country’s president. In televised comments quoted by Reuters, Hariri said that he “presented my resignation to President Aoun today and he urged me to wait” for more dialogue. “I showed responsiveness to this hope.”

More at: http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-1...ats-comes-next

[Swordsmyth]

During Wednesday's independence day celebrations in Lebanon, Prime Minister Saad Hariri was bizarrely photographed in what appeared to be in a warm and enthusiastic handshake with Iran's ambassador to Lebanon, Mohammad Fathali, while greeting dignitaries less than 24 hours after his plane touched down in Beirut following his bizarre two week detention in Saudi Arabia.
The photograph is receiving a lot of attention and circulation on Arab social media as ironically during his initial televised resignation speech from Riyadh he cited Iranian meddling and rising influence, even going so far as to suggest he could be assassinated in a nefarious Iranian plot. Yet now he appears surprisingly overjoyed standing in front of the Iranian ambassador.
But surely, based on the below photograph, the Saudi script is not unfolding exactly as planned. Not only did Hariri announce earlier on Wednesday that he will remain Lebanon's prime minister, but he looks absolutely relieved to be back, and nothing close to being a man who actually fears possible assassination (as he previously declared in Saudi Arabia, likely under coercion).


More at: http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-1...ian-ambassador

[Swordsmyth]

Lebanese PM threatens to resign over Hezbollah influence

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/politics-government/national-politics/article186645188.html



Lebanon's Aoun holds talks on Hariri government

President Michel Aoun held talks on Monday with other Lebanese political leaders over the future of Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri's government, but gave no sign whether they discussed Hariri's demand the country steer clear of regional turmoil.Aoun's office said the talks were positive and constructive but did not detail steps to address the demands Hariri made after postponing his shock resignation, notably that Lebanese stick by the state policy of staying out of regional conflicts - a reference to Iran-backed Shi'ite group Hezbollah.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/lebanons-...-business.html

[Swordsmyth]

Lebanese PM Hariri officially revokes resignation after parties agree to deal

On Tuesday, Hariri revoked his resignation after all factions of the Lebanese government -- including the militant group Hezbollah, with whom he shares power -- agreed to stay out of regional conflicts, his press office said.
Hariri said in a statement that his cabinet had reached a consensus to "exclude" itself from "any disputes, conflicts, wars, or the internal affairs of Arab states."

"All the groups in the government, in the cabinet, reaffirmed their commitment to the disassociation, so the policy in not interfering other countries' affairs," Hariri's press office told CNN.
There are several Hezbollah ministers in Hariri's cabinet, and his statement on Tuesday suggested that the group, which has fighters in Syria, had also agreed to stay out of the affairs of other Arab states.
"There is no comment yet," a spokesperson for Hezbollah told CNN when reached on Tuesday afternoon.

More at: http://www.cnn.com/2017/12/05/middle...ntl/index.html