Lebanese PM Hariri steps down strengthening Iranian/Hizballah grip on Beirut and Israeli border

Saad Hariri resigned as Prime Minister of Lebanon Saturday, Nov. 4. Speaking from Riyadh, he accused Iran and Hizballah of plotting his assassination, and said he would not be returning to Beirut for the time being.

Hariri boarded a plane to Saudi Arabia straight after meeting in Beirut Friday with Ali Akbar Velyati, Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s senior adviser on foreign affairs. .

In the convoluted, lethal politics of Lebanon, Saad Hariri, 47, has changed his spots time after time before he took office last November as the head of a broad coalition government, including his own Sunni-led Future Movement and the Shiite Hizballah.

He has always lived in the shadow of the 2005 assassination of his father, prime minister Rafiq Hariri, who died in a huge explosion in Beirut that was contrived by Syrian intelligence and Hizballah agents, killed 21 other people and kept the country in turmoil for years.

After repeated visits to Saudi Arabia in the last few days, Hariri announced his resignation as prime minister in a televised broadcast from Riyadh. He accused Iran and Hizballah of sowing “fear and destruction” in several countries, including Lebanon. “We are living in a climate similar to the atmosphere that prevailed before the assassination of martyr Rafiq al-Hariri,” he said. “I have sensed a covert plot to target my life.”

As recently as July 25, Hariri stood on the White House lawn in Washington beside President Donald Trump. He came to Washington to sell Trump on a plan for the Lebanese army to take part in a military operation led by Iran, Syria and Hizballah to root out the Islamist State and Nusra Front strongholds embedded in the Syrian-Lebanese border region.

The US President enthusiastically embraced the plan. However, neither Trump nor Harari – and even more surprisingly, Israel – grasped that the scheme for ousting the jihadists also opened the door for Iran to gain another segment of its strategic corridor via Iraq and Syria to the Mediterranean.
The Lebanese Sunni politician made several visits to Saudi Arabian in the last few days. His most recent was last Tuesday, Oct. 31, when he sat down with Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman. Sources in Riyadh reported Saturday that, upon returning home, he escaped an assassination plot hatched by Iran and Hizballah. This may or may not be true. If it is, why would the Lebanese politician agree to meet Velyati on Friday?

Whatever the case, Hariri’s flight to Saudi Arabia must be seen in the light of the events leading up to it and its consequences.

  1. Hariri himself contributed to the Iranian/Hizballah success in solidifying their grip on Beirut when, in October 2016, he helped the Christian leader Michel Aoun, friend of Hizballah’s Hassan Nasrallah, become president of Lebanon, by joining a deal between the three rival factions of Lebanon, his own Sunnis, the Christians and the Shiites. He also stood by when the national Lebanese army was made into an operational arm of Hizballah, a step that gave Nasrallah the leeway for sending his troops to fight for Bashad Assad in Syria.
    In the light of these actions, Saudi Arabia cut its longstanding family ties with Prime Minister Hariri.
  2.  Iranian and Hizballah sources attributed his flight to Riyadh to a conspiracy against them hatched between President Trump and Prince Muhammad, or more precisely US and Saudi secret services. But there is no denying its immediate consequence: Iran and its Shiite puppet have come out on the top of the political heap in Beirut and strengthened their control of Lebanon’s border with Israel, after shortening their distance to Israel’s border from Syria.

 

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19 thoughts on “Lebanese PM Hariri steps down strengthening Iranian/Hizballah grip on Beirut and Israeli border

  • Nov 4, 2017 @ 19:17 at 19:17
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    Nothing new here. Lebanon was always a hotbed for terrorism. Now it can add that on its business card too.
    Lebanon will become like Iran, the Sunni and Christian arabs will come to regret the pact they made with the Shiite Hizbalators, more upheaval will follow. Nice job Hassan.

  • Nov 4, 2017 @ 23:54 at 23:54
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    1- The pressure is mounting around Israel
    2- The pressure is mounting around Israel

    • Nov 5, 2017 @ 2:44 at 2:44
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      Right….doncha just see how Israel’s gonna cave from the pressure any second ?

      Meanwhile it’s HisBalless leader Hassan NoSwalloh who’s sleeping in a different bed every nite because he’s afraid of the IDF’s cross hairs; at last report, all Israeli leaders were sleeping soundly.

    • Nov 5, 2017 @ 4:07 at 4:07
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      Exactly. The colonial settler state is losing the Golan.

      Messianic terror states have one anothers’ back!

      • Nov 5, 2017 @ 11:34 at 11:34
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        “————terror states have one anothers’ back!”

        Iran, Syria, Iraq, Yemen, Hamas, Hezbollah and now Lebanon (soon to be Hezbollahstan) certainly do “have one anothers’ back”!

      • Nov 5, 2017 @ 16:22 at 16:22
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        the colonial settler ,you mean the british empire and its cancerous substates ,like the us and other anglo saxon monsters,hopefully you get mowed by another uzbek driver

        • Nov 5, 2017 @ 17:02 at 17:02
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          yeah,right ,go on and fuck your mother,you re the only one who would ,dirty monkey

    • Nov 5, 2017 @ 11:27 at 11:27
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      “1- The pressure is mounting around Israel
      2- The pressure is mounting around Israel”

      That’s been the case since 1948, so what’s new here?

  • Nov 5, 2017 @ 1:44 at 1:44
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    Sam Popack will help Lebanon!

  • Nov 5, 2017 @ 4:11 at 4:11
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    Israel (Mossad), you’re going to get your clock cleaned. Your only hope now is to turn to Jesus.

    Goodbye.

    • Nov 5, 2017 @ 11:18 at 11:18
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      “Israel (Mossad), you’re going to get your clock cleaned. Your only hope now is to turn to Jesus.

      Goodbye.”

      Just a note on history and to put everything in its logical perspective:
      The Rabbi Jesus was murdered by the Romans 2000 years ago.

    • Nov 5, 2017 @ 12:38 at 12:38
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      Hopefully, you’re going to get your twat cleaned, you’re letting off a stench.
      Your only hope now is to turn to the nearest douchebag.

      Goodbye

  • Nov 5, 2017 @ 4:21 at 4:21
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    I don’t Israel dare to touch him

  • Nov 5, 2017 @ 5:06 at 5:06
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    Lot of nut jobs out tonight. Israel has nothing to fear from this non event in Lebanon, Hezbollah was and still is the dominant Lebanese power.

  • Nov 5, 2017 @ 15:56 at 15:56
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    Evilous izrael …your time s short

    • Nov 5, 2017 @ 16:19 at 16:19
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      your way of writing suggests that you are a degenerated animal,like trump says

    • Nov 6, 2017 @ 11:25 at 11:25
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      If I were lebanese would leave the country. Next war, Lebanon will be brought back to the stone age. This time, bye bye Nasralah and his pupets.

  • Nov 5, 2017 @ 16:49 at 16:49
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    Yes indeed lots of nuts, fruits, and haters. The Golan will be in Israeli hands forever, nothing to fear. If the enemy would only know what defence sits inside the Golan, they would not start bs.

  • Nov 5, 2017 @ 17:23 at 17:23
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    jim caroll ibn kalb shrmoutra,why do not you go to a…..z with your bunch of akin monkeys,and take a shower and sauna,after that we would throw the merguez to the dogs

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