Beirut: Efforts to repair Lebanon’s relationship with Saudi Arabia have appeared to stall after Lebanese President Michel Aoun defended Hezbollah’s weapon arsenal while visiting Egypt on February 13.
During an interview with a private Egyptian TV station, Aoun backed Hezbollah’s ‘right’ to be armed — a point of contention inside Lebanon where all militias turned over their weapons after the country’s gruelling civil war except the Iran-backed group.
Hezbollah’s arms and influence has also been a sticking point for Saudi Arabia, which is currently engaged in Yemen’s civil war against Iran-backed Al Houthi militants.
According to the well-connected Al Jumhuriyyah daily, Saudi officials are livid at Aoun, which meant that Lebanon would suffer in the interim.
In January, Aoun travelled to Saudi Arabia and met with King Salman Bin Abdul Aziz, on his first presidential foreign visit.
Lebanese hoped the visit would restore vital economic ties and that Saudi Arabia would give Lebanon $3 billion (Dh11 billion) to purchase French weapons for the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) which it had previously withheld after Jibran Bassil, the Minister of Foreign Affairs who heads the Hezbollah-allied Free Patriotic Movement, voted against the unanimous Arab League and Organisation of Islamic Cooperation resolutions that condemned the January 5, 2016 Iranian attacks on Saudi missions in Iran.
Aoun’s meeting with Salman was touted as successful and Lebanese were promised ties would soon be restored back to normal.
But that hope seems to be dying out, especially after Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah recently escalated his rhetoric against Saudi Arabia and the UAE over the war in Yemen.
He also blasted Bahrain and accused the country of oppressing its people.
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