Mohammed bin Salman tries to catch up with Hariri

YemenExtra

SH.A.

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has been struggling to limit his latest disastrous mistakes after being held captive by a number of Saudi princes and forcing Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri to resign from Riyadh, the Washington Post reported.

Saudi Arabia’s Crown appears to be trying to contain the damage he has done in ways that could help stabilize Saudi Arabia and the region.

Washington and Riyadh are convinced that their interests lie, the newspaper said in a report on Saturday,in the stability of Lebanon, not in its instability, even if such policy requires some cooperation with Hezbollah.

A Saudi official said that, the kingdom was planning to work with Washington to support Lebanese institutions such as the military, which could gradually reduce the strength of Hezbollah and Iran, noting that bin Salman admitted that confronting Hezbollah was a long-term strategy.

It also quoted Lebanese sources as saying that Hariri would make efforts to obtain international support for Lebanon militarily and economically.

In a related context, the French newspaper Le Figuur quoted a French diplomat as saying that “Hariri is the one who decides whether he will stay on his resignation, which is more likely, or he believes he can correct the violations he talked about in the resignation.”