According to WMR’s sources in Lebanon and France, Saudi Arabia has further inflamed tensions in the Middle East by requesting from its ally, Egypt, permission for Saudi warplanes to overfly Egyptian territory to bomb Lebanon. The de facto new Saudi regime led by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) considers Saudi Arabia to be in a state of war with Lebanon.
Former Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri was called to Riyadh from Lebanon and was forced to read a resignation statement on Saudi television. WMR and other media outlets have reported that Hariri is being held against his will in Riyadh, news that prompted a hasty unscheduled visit to the Saudi capital by French President Emmanuel Macron. Macron was expected to ask MBS to allow Hariri to travel to France, where the ex-prime minister has a home. Lebanese President Michel Aoun, a Maronite Christian, has stated that he will not recognize Hariri’s resignation until he has a chance to meet him face-to-face in Beirut. In an ambiguously-phrased statement, French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said, “As far as we know, yes. We think he [Hariri] is free of his movements and it’s important he makes his own choices.”
The International Support Group for Lebanon, which includes the United States, Russia, the European Union, China, and the Arab League supported Aoun’s call for Hariri’s immediate return to Lebanon. Hariri, a Sunni Muslim, is a dual Lebanese-Saudi national. U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, traveling with Donald Trump in Asia, parroted denials from Saudi Arabia’s chief liar and propagandist Adel al-Jubeir that Hariri is not being held hostage in Saudi Arabia.
Saudi Arabia and its Gulf allies of the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Kuwait have warned their citizens not to travel to Lebanon.
Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi said he opposes any Saudi war with Lebanon and the Shi’a-led Lebanese Hezbollah, which is represented in the rump government formerly headed by Hariri. However, some observers dismiss El-Sisi’s remarks about a Saudi-Lebanese war and point to the fact that he has strongly backed MBS’s coup in Saudi Arabia. El-Sisi said of MBS, “I have confidence in the kingdom’s leadership” and called the situation in Saudi Arabia an “internal issue.”
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