Lebanon President Says Stability is ‘Red Line’ After Hariri Quit

Lebanon’s president stressed that stability is “a red line” after the prime minister’s shock resignation, Justice Minister Salim Jreissati said on Monday after meeting the president.

Saudi King Salman received Lebanese Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri in Riyadh on Monday, two days after he quit, Saudi al-Arabiya television reported, without elaborating, Reuters reported.

In a televised speech, Hariri had said he feared an assassination plot against him and claimed that Iran along with its Lebanese ally Hezbollah were sowing strife in the Arab world.

His resignation stunned Beirut’s political establishment, brought down the coalition government and sparked a new political crisis. It has thrust Lebanon into the front line of the regional rivalry between Saudi Arabia and Iran that has also buffeted Syria, Iraq, Yemen and Bahrain.

Lebanese President Michel Aoun convened a meeting with ministers and top security officials at the Baabda palace on Monday to assess the security situation. Aoun told them political leaders had been responsive to calls for calm, strengthening security and national unity, his office said.

The president will take no steps regarding the prime minister’s resignation before Hariri returns from abroad, the justice minister said at a press conference after the meeting.

Aoun said security, economic, financial, and political stability is “a red line”, Jreissati said.

  Ordered by Saudi Regime

The leader of Lebanon’s Hezbollah movement called the resignation of Saad Hariri a “Saudi-imposed decision”.

In a televised appearance on the Hezbollah-owned Al Manar TV, Hassan Nasrallah said on Sunday that Hariri’s resignation speech was “written by Saudi”.

“It was not our wish for Hariri to resign,” he said.

“Even if he was forced to resign, the way in which it was executed does not reflect Hariri’s way in dealing with things,” Nasrallah added, questioning the text of Hariri’s speech broadcast during his visit to the Saudi capital, Riyadh, on Saturday.

“It would have been better to allow him to go back to Lebanon, meet the president, submit his resignation, and declare it from the palace,” said Nasrallah.

Nasrallah concluded his remarks by saying Hezbollah will never be “pressured”.