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Lebanon vows to maintain Saudi ties despite tensions
7:56 CAT | 23 Feb 2016
Former Prime Minister Saad Hariri expressed loyalty to the kingdom after tensions rose
Lebanon vowed to support Arab countries and maintain its Arab identity, days after Saudi Arabia decided to halt a 4-billion-dollar grant for the Lebanese security forces in a diplomatic dispute.
Prime Minister Tammam Salam said on Monday that Lebanon should maintain good relations with Saudi Arabia and that Arab countries must garner a unified response to all obstacles that they face.
“Lebanon will not forget Saudi Arabia’s role … in helping it rebuild the country after the [1975-1990] civil war,” Salam said after a cabinet session.
Also on Monday, former Prime Minister Saad Hariri expressed loyalty to the kingdom.
READ MORE: Lebanon minister quits over ‘Hezbollah domination’
“Loyalty to the Kingdom means loyalty to Lebanon and offending the Kingdom means offending Lebanon,” he said at a ceremony attended by politicians, journalists and businessmen.
“We tell the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and its leadership, and the leaders of the Arab Gulf that the rogue voices attacking you do not speak in the name of Lebanon and the Lebanese and do not represent them.
“These are the voices of those who turned against Arabism and withdrew from the national consensus. We will not give them the chance to seize the Lebanese Republic regardless of the challenges.”
On Friday, Saudi Arabia said it was halting the military aid programme in a row over Lebanon’s failure to support the kingdom in its recent row with Iran, and at what it said were hostile “political and media positions led by the so-called Hezbollah in Lebanon.”
The Saudi announcement affects two deals, one for 3 billion dollars in military hardware for the armed forces and another worth 1 billion dollars in aid for the police.
Saudi Arabia broke off diplomatic relations with Iran last month, angered by the Islamic Republic’s criticism of its executionof Shia religious leader Nimr al-Nimr, and a mob attack on its embassy in Tehran.
Iran and Hezbollah are also staunch supporters of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, committing troops to help his forces against the rebels and hardline groups such as the Islamic State of Syria and the Levant (ISIL).
Saudi Arabia has been a key backer of the Syrian opposition since the beginning of the uprising against the reign of Assad in 2011.
Source: Al Jazeera
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