Lebanon Demands Saudis Return PM Saad Hariri

PM Resigned Amid Claims of Assassination Plot

Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri, who resigned last week amid claims of an assassination plot, has gone missing from his trip in Saudi Arabia, and despite Saudi denials, Lebanese officials believe he is being held by the Saudi government.

Saad Hariri

Lebanon has yet to accept the resignation, which was made during Hariri’s Saudi visit, and President Aoun is seeking diplomatic help to try to figure out what exactly happened. Other officials are demanding his return, saying restricting his movements is a violation of national sovereignty.

The Hariri resignation was made within Saudi Arabia, and blamed Iran and Hezbollah, at roughly the same time Saudi officials blamed Iran and Hezbollah for a missile fired from Yemen. Saudi Arabia has been moving to escalate tensions with Lebanon ever since.

But Hariri’s fate seems a mystery. Saudi officials initially claimed he’d left, then claimed he could leave any time he wanted. Since then, there’ve been numerous false reports of him being en route to various places, but so far he’s never turned up.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.