Who Scared Off Lebanon’s PM: Nasrallah or Bin Salman?

After the assassination of the rich and relatively popular Prime Minister of Lebanon, Rafic Hariri, the accusing finger was pointed at Lebanon’s Hezbollah movement. This was the most popular answer and also a simplification of a complex puzzle. This puzzle, albeit with delay, was later resolved for the young Saad Hariri, and March 14 Alliance stopped seeking revenge on its powerful rival. The presidential spell in Lebanon was also broken, and an era of executive power vacuum was filled in the Arab country.

Saad Hariri spent a relatively long period with his suspicion falling on Hezbollah, and as a result, a tense atmosphere was created in Lebanon. A state without government was left for the parties and tribes of this land. Eventually, the spell of presidential vacuum broke with the agreement of Lebanon’s major political currents to elect General Michel Aoun, and as a result of this national consensus Saad Hariri became the premier. However, with the end of the presidential void, the ambiguities about Rafic Hariri’s assassination was resolved. Lebanon’s problem was solved when neat documents provided clues about the identity of the late prime minister’s assassin, and proved to the young Hariri that Hezbollah had not been involved in his father’s murder.

Saad Hariri was shocked to see the role of Saudi Arabia revealed in the assassination of his father. Now, it was time for him to forget his anger at Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, and that’s what he did. Exercising restraint, he maintained the ties with the Saudi rulers. With the puzzle of his father’s assassination solved, the young Hariri clearly understood that the cost of changing his position towards Riyadh is his life. But from now on, having confidence in Hezbollah, he could lead the coalition government of Lebanon; A crisis-struck country, whose smallest problem was the dumping of rubbish in the beautiful city of Beirut!

While ordinary Lebanese civilians are witnessing sacrifices made by Hezbollah forces to keep their country away from civil war and the sedition of ISIS and also their efforts to cleanse their homeland of multinational terrorism, it is surprising that Saad Hariri, at the same time as his Israeli counterpart regretted the failure of ISIS in Syria, suddenly returned to the days before his premiership and called for Hezbollah to be disarmed!

What has happened in Lebanon that forced the young prime minister to show a 180-degree turn in his positions? Is the Hebrew, Arab, and Western-backed Zionism going to turn this country into a (new) battlefield and spill the civil war from Syria and Iraq to Lebanon while the terrorists are fleeing the Iraqi and Syrian territories? Should Lebanon once again experience a bitter power vacuum and be flooded with internal disputes?

On Friday, the special envoy of Iran’s Leader to Lebanon, Ali Akbar Velayati, who had travelled to the Lebanese capital to attend the Union of Resistance Ulema Summit, met with the country’s officials, including Saad Hariri. He expressed satisfaction with the continuation of the victories of the axis of resistance (in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Yemen, next to their allies, Russia and Turkey). This satisfaction was reflected on TV screens for a few moments and drew the attention of the opposite side (terrorists and their regional and trans-regional supporters). Now the question is that if Hariri’s surprise resignation in Riyadh, and its announcement by the Al-Arabia network in Saudi Arabia, is linked to the joint satisfaction expressed by the host and the guest?

Should the Lebanese Prime Minister quit playing with Saudi’s fire only because of giving a warm laugh (not an artificial or diplomatic one) to Velayati and his inability to conceal his apparent satisfaction with the victory of a number of citizens against ISIS and al-Nusra Front?

A remarkable point in Hariri’s resignation was expressing that the conditions of Lebanon today is similar to his father’s term. Has the young Saad been afraid of meeting a similar fate to the late Prime Minister of Lebanon?!

The mystery of today is: who scared off Hariri? Bin Salman or Hassan Nasrallah?!