Hariri's shock resignation: What Saudis gain, and Lebanon could lose
The sudden resignation of Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri has plunged Lebanon into political uncertainty and raised fears that this tiny Mediterranean country is going to be dragged into the center of the burgeoning and at times violent regional confrontation between Sunni Saudi Arabia and Shiite Iran.
Saudi Arabia, reacting to the increasing influence the Islamic Republic wields in Lebanon, Syria, and Iraq, has in recent months steadily escalated its hostile rhetoric toward Iran.
And in announcing his shock resignation Saturday in Riyadh, to which he appeared to have been summoned, Mr. Hariri lashed out at Iran and its powerful Lebanese ally Hezbollah in an uncharacteristically public fashion.
His resignation seems to signal that a bullish Saudi Arabia, buoyed by the Trump administration’s anti-Iran stance, is no longer willing to allow its Lebanese ally to compromise with Hezbollah, an arrangement which over the past 12 months has brought some rare stability to Lebanon.
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