Saudi Arabia stops military assistance to Lebanon

Riyadh earlier on Friday also said that the remainder of a $1 billion financing package for Lebanese internal security forces had been stopped, in a separate decision.

Saudi Arabia has chose to protect its own interests through stopping the military assistance worth $3 billion to the Lebanese army and the unpaid $1 billion dollars to the security forces, the report said.

The kingdom said it would conduct a comprehensive review of its relations with Lebanon after the country failed to support resolutions against Iran during two meetings of Arab and Muslim foreign ministers.

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) supported Saudi Arabia’s announcement and confirmed that the official Lebanese position has been hijacked against the interests of Lebanon and the Arab world.

“If other producers want to limit or agree to a freeze in terms of additional production that may have an impact on the market but Saudi Arabia is not prepared to cut production”, Adel al-Jubeir told AFP.

The 13-nation Opec oil cartel, of which Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, Qatar and Iran are members, has refrained from cutting output as it looks to maintain market share in the face of competition from U.S. shale oil producers. Relations took a turn for the worse at the start of the year, when Saudi Arabia executed a prominent Shiite cleric and protesters stormed Saudi diplomatic posts in Iran.

The official quoted by the Saudi Press Agency said the kingdom had noticed “hostile Lebanese positions resulting from the stranglehold of Hezbollah on the State”.

The schism has been exacerbated by the war in neighbouring Syria, with Hezbollah sending fighters to bolster President Bashar al-Assad against an uprising that is supported by Saudi Arabia and Hariri’s political bloc.

“So I present to you and to Prime Minister Tammam Salam my resignation”, he said.

That was “regrettable and unjustified”, and “inconsistent with the fraternal relations between the two countries”, the Saudis said.

The support from the Emirates, a close Saudi ally, does not come as a major surprise but is still significant.

The Lebanese March 14 political bloc, backed by Saudi Arabia, subsequently blamed Hezbollah and Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil for the suspensions.

The Donas programme was to ship vehicles, helicopters, drones, cannons and other equipment to Lebanon.