Press TV - Saad Hariri's suddenresignation from Lebanon's premiership, announced from Saudi Arabia,has raised fears that regional tensions were about to escalate and that the small country wouldonce again pay a heavy price.
Hariri quit his post on Saturday in a televised speech broadcast by Saudi Arabia's Al-Arabiya television, during which he appeared tense as hecarefully readout from a written statement.
He claimed that he feared the same fate as his assassinated father and accused Iran and the Lebanese resistance movement Hezbollahof meddling in Arab countries affairs.
Hariris departure sent shockwaves through Lebanon as the country is struggling to maintain stability at a time when much of the Middle East is gripped by Takfiri violence rootedin Saudi Arabia.
Lebanons Minister of Justice Salim Jreissatisaid the development was "confusing and suspicious in its timing and location as well as the way it was delivered and the content of the resignation."
The optics are terrible for Hariri to resign from Riyadh, imagine how his audience [in Lebanon] feels watching that, said Emile Hokayem, a regional analyst at the Institute for Strategic Studies.
God protect Lebanon from the evil of Saudi Arabias reckless adventures, Sheikh Nabil Kawouk, a member of Hezbollahs central committee, told Lebanons Al Jadeed television.
Last week, Qatar's former prime minister Hamad bin Jassim revealed how the UScoordinated support by Doha, Riyadh and Ankara for terrorists operating against the Syrian government.
Syria has always been a thorn in the side of Israel. The Arab countryis part of the "axis of resistance" along withLebanon's Hezbollah and Iran, which has brought Daesh to the brink of elimination.
The triangle of Saudi Arabia, Israel and the US is alarmed and the prospect of aneventual triumph of this axis which has now become inevitable has prompted them to takedrasticmeasures.
On Friday, as Syria began celebrating the capture ofDayr al-Zawr, Nusra Front terrorists launched a massive assault on a Druze village neighboring the occupied Golan Heights.
According to Syrian state media, the onslaught was carried out with the Israeli coordination and assistance but Tel Aviv used the occasion to threaten a direct intervention in the war.
Hariri's resignation over what he called Hezbollah's "grip" on Lebanon isthe latest drastic step which Saudi Arabia and its allies havetaken to tip the scales even at the cost of turning Lebanon into another Syria.
With the prime minister out of the political landscape, the architects of the new "plot" could claim that Lebanon was exclusively under Hezbollah's control. That idea was articulated byIsraeli minister of military affairs Avigdor Lieberman on Saturday.
Lebanon=Hezbollah. Hezbollah=Iran. Lebanon=Iran, he tweeted.
Hariri was appointed as the Lebanese premier in late 2016, aftertwo yearsofpolitical deadlock in the country. He formed a national unity government that included almost all of the main political parties in Lebanon, including Hezbollah.
Under the Lebanese constitution, the prime minister should be picked from among the Sunni community, but Saudi Arabia has tried to use the prerogative to maintain its influence in the country.
Riyadh says the government should be purged of Hezbollah, especially at a time when the resistance movementis emerging stronger from the Syria conflict.
Over the past few weeks, Saudi Arabia's Ministerof State for PersianGulfAffairsThamer al-Sabhan had unleashed a series of vitriolic attacks against Hezbollah, saying the group should be punished... and confronted by force."
The accusations coincided with new sanctions approved by US House of Representatives on the Lebanese resistance movement.
Hossein Sheikholeslam, a senior Iranian politician, told Al MayadeenTV that Hariris resignation had been coordinated before betweenUS president Donald Trump and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
He said,After the defeat of Daesh and the US in the region, Washington and Riyadh are trying to fuel tensions in Lebanon and the region.
Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, an adviser to the Iranian parliament speaker, agreed.The decisionhasbeen made by the anti-Iran and anti-Hezbollah front following the disillusionment of US and its allies with Daesh, he said.
In Lebanon, political leaders expressed their apprehension, including the leader of Lebanon's Druze minority, who has frequently played kingmaker in Lebanese politics.
Walid Jumblatt, the leader of Lebanon's Progressive Socialist Party (PSP),warned of the political burden and consequences of the resignation.
Hilal Khashan, a professor of political science at the American University of Beirut, said Hariris departure was a dangerous decision whose consequences will be heavier than what Lebanon can bear.
"Hariri has started a cold war that could escalate into a civil war, bearing in mind that Hezbollah is unmatched in Lebanon on the military level," he added.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, however, welcomed the decision andsaid Hariri's departure should be a wake-up call to the international community to what he described as the threat posed by Iran.
