AS IF shuffling one government were too slight a task, Saudi Arabia’s ambitious young crown prince, Muhammad bin Salman, has changed two. On November 4th, the same day as the Saudi purge, Lebanon’s prime minister, Saad Hariri, unexpectedly appeared on television to announce he was resigning. Although he said he was stepping down because his life was in danger—he denounced Iran and its powerful Lebanese ally, Hizbullah—there was little to disguise the Saudi hand in his statement. The announcement was recorded in Riyadh, the Saudi capital, and broadcast on a Saudi television channel. Since then he has stayed out of reach under Saudi guard and possibly under arrest.
A few days earlier the kingdom’s Gulf-affairs minister, Thamer al-Sabhan, had promised “astonishing” developments to topple Hizbullah, a Shia militia-cum-political-party that calls the shots in Lebanon.
At first glance Saudi Arabia’s desire to oust Mr Hariri, a...Continue reading
Source: Middle East and Africa http://ift.tt/2mahVsg
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