A Saudi official, Prince Yazid Bin Farahan, in charge of the "Lebanon file", landed in Beirut last week, even before a new Lebanese president was chosen. This is an unusual step for Riyadh that has always opted to wait before making a decisive move.
After relations between the countries were severed for a long time, and after the Iranians escaped Syria and backed away from Lebanon, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman (MBS) decided to dive knee deep into the matter and ensure the appointment of General Joseph Aoun to the position of president.
From the moment the Saudi official arrived in Beirut, he has been running between government ministries, meeting with Prime Minister Najib Mukati, Parliament Speaker Nabih Berry and others, to secure Aoun's appointment. He only avoided meeting any member of Hezbollah although a clear message was delivered to the Shiite group that their account with the Saudi's is still open and would be settled.
Now the Saudis are back in Lebanon and the Iranians are made to retreat with their heads bowed. Large posters of Aoun with MBS now hang in the city squares and the message cannot be clearer.
The Saudi crown prince was quick to congratulate the new president, who announced that his first foreign visit would be to Riyadh. But before he boards his plane, Aoun has committed to take on the heavy task of collecting weapons, mostly from Hezbollah, to remove them from the streets of Lebanon.
How this would work and if it would succeed is unclear, while Hezbollah continues to claim that they are simply guarding Lebanon's borders against the dangers posed by Israel while at the same time Iran, in an attempt to destabilize Lebanon, had diplomats at Tehran's Beirut embassy who are also operatives of Iranian intelligence, pressuring Hezbollah's members of parliament to vote against Aoun, the Saudi-backed candidate.
Iran's ambassador to Lebanon visits site of Nasrallah assassination
Get the Ynetnews app on your smartphone: Google Play: https://bit.ly/4eJ37pE | Apple App Store: https://bit.ly/3ZL7iNv
Aoun's win was greeted with joy in Washington, Paris, the Gulf and most of the Arab world. Saudi Arabia's funding for rehabilitation of Lebanon was conditioned on Hezbollah being disarmed. This is in line with the new president's public statement that only the Lebanese army would be allowed to bear arms and engage in fighting. But that declaration must be followed by action and for now, there is no indication that Hezbollah would be willing to comply.
Sources in the know now say that MBS and Aoun are patiently waiting for Israel to chose a replacement for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu before Lebanon joins a Saudi led normalization with Israel