Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri resigned Saturday, after delivering a blistering attack on Iran and Hezbollah, both in Lebanon and across the region. The resignation follows consultations with Saudi Arabian leaders in Riyadh, and a meeting with Iran’s top foreign policy adviser, Ali Akbar Velayati.

Hariri announced his resignation Saturday on Lebanese state TV, after speculation in Arab media that the two-time prime minister might make such a move following several visits to Saudi Arabia in recent days, during which he met with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin-Salman.

Lebanese President Michel Aoun indicated that Hariri’s office had called him from outside Lebanon to relay the news of his resignation. Commentators on Saudi-owned al-Arabiya TV stressed that Hariri’s resignation speech was made from the Saudi capital, Riyadh, and that it had “regional implications.”

In his speech, Hariri accused both Iran and its Lebanese proxy militia, Hezbollah, of creating discord in the country, as well as across the region.

He says that outside parties — alluding to Iran — that wish ill on Lebanon have sown sectarian strife among the Lebanese, gaining control of the levers of power, and setting up a state-within-a-state. He also accused Iran of meddling in the internal affairs of other Arab states, including Syria, Iraq, Bahrain and Yemen.

Hariri went on to claim the political climate inside Lebanon resembled the one that prevailed in the months before his father, the late prime minister Rafiq al-Hariri, was assassinated in February, 2005, and that he sensed a “covert plot” against his own life. Arab and Lebanese media have long accused Hezbollah of killing the elder Hariri.

He added that the Lebanese people are “determined to be free and independent,” and he insisted the country must have “only one state, one army, and one set of arms.”

Hariri met Friday with Iran’s top foreign policy advisor, former foreign minister Ali Akbar Velayati.

Hilal Khashan, who teaches political science at the American University of Beirut, tells VOA he thinks Hariri might have wanted to tell Iran he was not “seeking to escalate the conflict,” despite his impending resignation.

Khashan says he does not think a new government will be formed any time soon and that Hariri’s government will continue to govern in a caretaker capacity for a long time.

“We are used to having a caretaker cabinet perform its functions for a year or so,” said Khashan. :So, it will be a long time before another cabinet is formed [and] it will be a long time before another Sunni leader will accept to form a cabinet …Otherwise, he would be labelled a traitor.”

Despite the sudden political storm, Khashan does not believe that it is “in the interest of either Iran, or Hezbollah to escalate tensions” following Hariri’s resignation.

He said outside parties like Israel, however, are taking a more muscular attitude toward Hezbollah. He says recent Israeli “raids against Hezbollah (targets) in Syria … mark an escalation in their attacks.”

He also points out that Israeli warplanes have been “making intensive overflights in the south of Lebanon during the past few days.”
…