A senior Saudi diplomatic delegation met with the new Lebanese president and Hizbollah ally Michel Aoun on Monday, in a potential thawing of tensions.
Once warm relations between the two countries took a sharp turn in February when Riyadh halted US$4 billion (Dh14.69bn) in grants to Lebanon’s security forces, blaming Hizbollah’s domination of the country.
Saudi Arabia and several other Arab Gulf states followed this with a downgrading of diplomatic ties with Beirut, issuing travel bans, imposing sanctions on Hizbollah and threatening further actions.
But on Monday, Saudi Prince Khaled Al Faisal, the governor of Mecca, met with Gen Aoun at Lebanon’s presidential palace and said the president had agreed to visit Riyadh following the formation of a government in Beirut.
Lebanon is keen to strengthen ties with Saudi Arabia, said a statement from the Lebanese president’s office.
Gen Aoun was elected president by Lebanon’s parliament on October 31, ending a two-and-a-half year power vacuum. His Free Patriotic Movement is allied with Hizbollah, the group that inspired Riyadh’s anger earlier this year. Saudi Arabia has also blamed Gen Aoun’s son-in-law, interim foreign minister Gebran Bassil, for the breakdown in relations.
Hizbollah is active in the civil war in Syria, backing president Bashar Al Assad, and has been accused of assisting Houthi rebels in Yemen. The group is considered a terrorist organisation by the GCC, the United States and a number of other countries.
While Gen Aoun and Saudi Arabia may not appear to be friends on paper, the Lebanese president came to power in a deal that returned Saad Hariri, the leader of the Sunni Future Movement and a close ally of Riyadh, to the post of prime minister.
After the hostility seen earlier this year, Monday’s meeting in Beirut is a significant improvement in relations, but a full restoration of ties and Saudi funding of Lebanon’s security forces may still be distant.
Gen Aoun and Mr Hariri still need to form a cabinet – a difficult task given Lebanon’s sharp political divides. Gen Aoun is also expected to remain close to Hizbollah, a group that has cemented its dominance in Lebanon in recent years.
Earlier this month, the Shiite group paraded its fighters and materiel – including American-made armoured personnel carriers – through the Syrian city of Qusayr in a show of force. Following the muscle-flexing, Hizbollah’s deputy leader Naim Qassim asserted that the group had now evolved from a guerrilla force into an “army”.
jwood@thenational.ae
* With additional reporting from Reuters
