Tiny Lebanon is caught In the crosshairs of the Saudi-Iran fight

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saudi iran mapThe simmering rivalry between Saudi Arabia and Iran is on the verge of upending another nation caught in their widening turf war: tiny, war-riven and economically struggling Lebanon.

This week, the Saudi foreign ministry urged all its citizens living in Lebanon to leave the country and warned people not to travel there. The United Arab Emirates, an ally of Saudi Arabia, quickly followed suit and announced it planned to pull diplomats from Lebanon’s capital and prohibit its citizens from traveling to the country.

The political admonishments came just days after Saudi Arabia delivered a powerful fiscal blow to Lebanon. It declared that it would suspend $3 billion in weapons and military equipment for the Lebanese army and withdrew another $1 billion earmarked for the country’s internal security service. A Saudi commercial bank later shut down its operations in Lebanon.

The reason for the withering attacks? Beirut failed to condemn attacks on Saudi diplomatic missions after the kingdom beheaded a prominent Shiite cleric at the beginning of this year.

Nimr al-Nimr’s execution by Saudi Arabia triggered waves of sectarian-tinged rioting across the Middle East. After protestors torched Saudi Arabia’s embassy in mainly Shiite Iran, nations loyal to Saudi Arabia joined the Sunni monarchy in cutting off relations with their biggest regional rival. More violent protests, severed diplomatic ties and curtailed trade and travel between countries followed. Lebanon’s woes began when Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil refused to vote on a joint Arab statement condemning the embassy attacks, citing the fact that the statement also criticized Lebanese political group and militia Hezbollah, which holds significant sway at home.

The implications of the Saudi-Iranian clash go beyond this immediate feud, since both nations have competing interests in almost every war and conflict in the Middle East, including a lengthy power struggle in Lebanon. Riyadh has always backed Sunni politicians in the country, including Saad al-Hariri, who served as prime minister until his government collapsed in 2011. Meanwhile, Iranian-backed Hezbollah continues to solidify its political and military might in Lebanon. Hezbollah fighters also make up part of the military coalition backing Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, who the Saudis want ousted from power.

Last week, a senior Saudi official said the kingdom was making “a comprehensive review of its relations with the Lebanese republic,” Saudi state media reported. The official said that the kingdom had noticed “hostile Lebanese positions resulting from the stranglehold of Hezbollah on the state.”

The punitive measures taken by the Saudis and its powerful Gulf allies have some fearful that it could mark the beginning of the kingdom pulling out of Lebanon and ceding total influence over to Iran. In a direct appeal to Saudi King Salman and other Gulf leaders this week, Lebanon’s former Prime Minister Hariri urged them “not to abandon Lebanon and to continue to support and embrace it.” Hariri also said he himself would lead a delegation to the Gulf states make clear that Lebanon would always show “support for its Arab brothers.”

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21 responses to “Tiny Lebanon is caught In the crosshairs of the Saudi-Iran fight”

  1. Patience2 Avatar

    So, which side would YOU rather be on??

    1. Hind Abyad Avatar

      No one.. this is a disgrace, Lebanese stupid corrupted politicians sending delegations like beggars which they are, they have no honour, they invested with Saudi money they’re panicking for themselves not for the people.

      1. MaImequer0 Avatar

        sweetie, everyone knows that you are in love with iran’s proxies.. sick hezzie lover.

      2. MaImequer0 Avatar

        sick hezzie lover….

        1. Christina Metron Avatar
          Christina Metron

          do you have a child for me to suck on his Kosher weiner?

      3. There is more to this than meets the eye. The current foreign minister of ksa is a nutter it has been documented. The issues ksa are whinging about were over a month ago. Why is being brought up now? Recently ksa and uae said they are willing to send troops to syria to al fight isis??? Now we have this rhetoric and all the stooges and Hariri has stayed in lebanon longer than usual??? I see lebanon being flanked. The gcc has hysteria nothing has worked for them. Now all this.??? Lebanon is being flanked and they are gearing up for a confrontation. Add to this rifi resigning due to a power struggle for pm between rifi Hariri and mashnouq. I see rifi being killed to instigate something big. And rifi will be killed by the saudis and hzb blamed of course. In the eyes of the saudis ever since the taef they own lebanon and Hariri clan is their administrators. I have never seen such dishonour in my life. Who are th saudis for us to bow down to. What is it they want?

        1. Hind Abyad Avatar

          Exactly..”European Parliament calls for Saudi arms embargo”
          EU licensed more than $3 billion of arms sales to Saudi Arabia since Saudi-led forces began destroying Yemen
          http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/eu-votes-arms-embargo-against-saudi-arabia-over-bombing-yemeni-civilians-1545959

    2. Christina Metron Avatar
      Christina Metron

      Not the ISraeli ZioVermin side that’s for sure.

  2. Payback for burying the head in the sand for 25 years and refusing to address the elephant in the room was bound to come at some point. Maybe this will make the Lebanese realize that you can’t have a gang of thugs running the country and expect everybody in the neighbourhood to play nice.

    1. Christina Metron Avatar
      Christina Metron

      We need the Saudi terror supporters as much as we need the Israeli Vermin scumbags. As long as Iran keeps on supplying us with weapons that’s all we care about. As of now we have more rockets than to know what to do with, no more room to store them.

      1. Hind Abyad Avatar

        That’s one scumbag..

  3. Dennis Miller used to have a joke in 1980s about lesser of two evils: Where would I rather vacation? Iran or Iraq?
    Leb must feel the same way.

    1. Christina Metron Avatar
      Christina Metron

      Lebanon feel, like who gives me more weapons to fight my Israeli enemy and their people the ISIS and Nusra.

  4. All problems of ^Tiny Lebanon^ have been problems of foreign policy!That is why ^ No Group^ should try to dominate and control foreign policy and political life!As Hourani says in his book ^Arabic Thought,,^

    1. Christina Metron Avatar
      Christina Metron

      reality is, one group does control and represent, and if you don’t like it, tough luck for you, you are free to move either to Saudi Arabia, or ISrael, whichever represents your line of thought best. Not that there is a difference between the two.

  5. Christina Metron Avatar
    Christina Metron

    Iran’s Economy rose 24% last month, Saudi’s economy lost $98 Billion the last month alone. Lebanese best start business with Iran, And tell the Saudis to go F themselves,.

  6. Christina Metron Avatar
    Christina Metron

    The Ziovermin are here in droves, it seems as if there is an infestation of vermin, the smell is unbearable. they must think someone dropped a penny and lost it, the only logical reason why so many Ziovermin Jews are here.

  7. Christina Metron Avatar
    Christina Metron

    Arab is not a country, Arab is not a passport, Arab is not a
    citizenship. Arab is a luxury of fantasy in the oil money world
    ediction.
    The entire earth is in similar to Lebanese unless you live
    on the moon, the Islamic political terrorism is the world’s number one
    threat, all terrorists are Muslims armed with ethnic hate culture.

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