The Saudi cabinet stated that any assistance to Lebanon, both now and in the future, depends on “serious and tangible” reforms by the Saudi government.
The Saudi cabinet said in a statement after its meeting Tuesday night that it would not be possible to help Lebanon until serious reforms were taken.
In this statement, the Saudi government, while expressing solidarity with the Lebanese people, stressed that it will not help the current or future Lebanese government before it undertakes significant and serious reforms.
According to the Saudi state news agency WAS, the statement said: The reforms will ensure that aid reaches the stakeholders and prevents the mechanisms that enable the corrupt to take control of Lebanon’s fate.
Meetings between Lebanese President Michel Aoun and caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati have continued in recent days, with the two sides trying to close the cabinet formation by mid-August.
Although some of the obstacles to Saad Hariri’s advance are now facing Najib Mikati, and there may be problems with the distribution of ministerial posts, the Americans and their regional allies, including the Saudis, are trying to put more pressure on Hezbollah.
The United States recognizes that Lebanese President Michel Aoun and Free National Movement leader Gibran Basil are key allies of Hezbollah, and that sanctions should be addressed to them.
On the other hand, since the beginning of Saad Hariri’s mission to form a cabinet in Lebanon in October 2020, the obstruction of Saudi Arabia along the Western-American axis has been one of the factors that brought the case of the Lebanese government to the brink of collapse.
Some Lebanese sources attribute the stoning of Riyadh in the process of forming the Lebanese cabinet headed by Saad Hariri to personal differences and the cold relations between the incumbent Lebanese Prime Minister and Saudi Arabia since he was taken hostage in Riyadh in 2017, and believe that Saad is the agents of Saudis in Lebanon.
Therefore, some prominent Lebanese and Sunni circles close to the Saudi authorities believe, Riyadh did not agree with the resignation of Saad Hariri, the current head of the Future Movement, as the candidate for the next Lebanese Prime Minister, also, from the point of view of the Saudis, the new caretaker Prime Minister of Lebanon, Najib Mikati, is not much different from Saad Hariri, and accordingly, Saudi Arabia has not yet taken a firm position on Prime Minister Mikati.