Lebanon President accuses Saudi Arabia of making its PM hostage
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BEIRUT: Lebanon’s president on Wednesday accused Saudi Arabia of holding hostage prime minister Saad al-Hariri along with his family – the first time he has explicitly said he was being held – and called this an act of aggression.
“We will not accept him remaining a hostage whose reason for detention we do not know,” President Michel Aoun said in a statement.
Hariri’s abrupt resignation as premier in a statement televised from the Saudi capital Riyadh on Nov 4 thrust Lebanon to the front of a Middle East contest for power between Saudi Arabia and Iran.
Aoun has said he will not accept Hariri’s resignation until he returns to Lebanon to formally submit it and explain his reasons, which Hariri has said he will do in the coming days.
Lebanese politicians close to Hariri said last week that Saudi Arabia had coerced him into quitting. Hariri has denied being kept in custody by Saudi Arabia and pledged on Wednesday to return soon. Riyadh denies detaining him or forcing him to resign.
Saudi Arabia has long been considered Hariri’s main external supporter. Aoun is a political ally of Lebanon’s Hezbollah, a powerful Muslim group with close ties to Iran.
Lebanon’s coalition government was formed last year through a political deal that made Aoun president, Hariri prime minister, and brought members of Hezbollah into the cabinet.
Saudi Arabia last week accused Lebanon of having declared war on it because of Hezbollah’s role in other Arab countries. It regards Hezbollah as a terrorist organisation.
In an interview on Sunday night with a television station he owns, Hariri warned of economic sanctions against Lebanon and of a threat to the livelihoods of hundreds of thousands of Lebanese workers living in Saudi Arabia and its Gulf allies.
“Nothing justifies Hariri’s lack of return for 12 days. We therefore consider him detained,” Aoun said.
He added that Lebanon had confirmed that Hariri’s family were under detention in their house in Saudi Arabia and were searched whenever they entered or left it.
