Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhane during a meeting with his Russian counterpart in Moscow, March 9, 2023. (Credit: Alexander Zemlianichenko/Pool via Reuters)
Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhane Al-Saud said Friday night that Lebanon "needs a Lebanese rapprochement" to overcome its political-socio-economic crisis, not Riyadh-Tehran normalization. He make the remarks in the wake of the reestablishment of diplomatic ties between Saudi Arabia and Iran.
Lebanon is undergoing a serious financial-economic crisis coupled with a political crisis with a total vacancy of the executive power — no president and no fully-fledged government.
"What Lebanon needs is a Lebanese rapprochement, not a Lebanese-Iranian-Saudi rapprochement," the Saudi minister told al-Arabiya television in Paris, adding that "Lebanon must see where its interests lay. Politicians must put Lebanese interest above all others.
"When the decision is made to build the Lebanese state, the country will certainly flourish and Saudi Arabia will be by its side," he said.
After Chinese mediation Riyadh and Tehran signed an agreement to restore relations and reopen their respective embassies within two months, a development that many expect to have a positive impact on the Near and Middle East, where both Iran and Arabia have influence.
In Lebanon, the news was welcomed by diplomats and by Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, who saw it as a "very welcome change."
For his part, Hezbollah number 2 Naim Qassem declared that the rapprochement marks "an important turn for stability and safety in the region," as well as a "blow to the American and Israeli project."
The links between Hezbollah and Tehran, as well as the party's growing influence on the political scene, had led Riyadh — itself the Lebanese state's principal financial patron — to withdraw from Lebanese affairs, going so far as to temporarily suspend its diplomatic relations and imports from Lebanon.
During a Paris meeting the Saudi minister Friday discussed the Lebanese situation with his French counterpart Catherine Colonna.
In early February, Riyadh participated in a Paris meeting to discuss the crisis in Lebanon with representatives of the United States, Qatar and Egypt and France.
