Monitoring Desk
RIYADH: Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan said Tuesday that he plans to visit Beirut this week.
“We will need to see a commitment to a Lebanon that is looking to the future, not to the past, in order for us to raise our engagement,” he said at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos.
Lebanon elected a new president on Jan. 9 after a two-year vaccum. Days later, a prime minister was designated to form a new government. The president, Joseph Aoun, and PM-designate, Nawaf Salam, are outside of the political elite and there are expectations that Beirut will be able to finally break free of decades of corruption and clientilism.
Prince Faisal expressed optimism over the formation of a new Lebanese government but said it was ultimately up to the Lebanese people. “Based on what I hear there and what we see, I think that will inform the Kingdom’s approach,” he said about his scheduled trip to Beirut. “But I have to say, what I’ve seen so far, and the conversations that we’ve been hearing happening in Lebanon all allow me to be very much optimistic,” he added.
A ceasefire deal between Hezbollah and Israel last November put an end to a devastating yearlong war. Under the deal, the Israeli army must withdraw its forces by January 26 to be replaced by the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) and UN peacekeepers. Hezbollah is also supposed to dismantle its military infrastructure in the south and pull fighters back at least 20 miles away from the border with Israel.
The international community, mainly the Gulf, has disengaged from Beirut for years due to Hezbollah’s hegemony over the state and its involvemnet in supporting Yemen’s Houthis as they attacked Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates for years. But the new Lebanese president, who was the former commander of the (LAF), has vowed to exert a monopoly over all arms and weapons in the country. His election quickly opened the door for foreign leaders and officials to visit Beirut.
So far, the presidents of Cyprus and France have made trips to Lebanon as well as other foreign ministers.
Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal announced last week that his company would reconstruct Beirut’s Four Seasons Hotel and reopen it by the end of next year, citing the election of a new president and a “new era for Lebanon.”
Courtesy: (Al Arabiya English)
