Follow-Up: Saad Hariri (Lebanon)

Back in December 2017, I wrote a couple blog posts about Lebanon's Prime Minister Saad Hariri. At the time, he resigned from his position while in Saudi Arabia. For awhile, he was potentially under house arrest. With international negotiations going on, Hariri was finally allowed to return to Lebanon.

So I figured it might be interesting to take a look at what is going on with Saad Hariri, around 6 months after his resignation while in Saudi Arabia.

Via Al Jazeera, he is going to serve his third term as Prime Minister:

Hariri's party lost a sizeable chunk of its power in May 6 vote, but remains the biggest Sunni-led party with 20 seats . . . Hariri was put forward for the job by 111 of 128 members of Lebanon's parliament in consultations with [President Michel] Aoun held on Thursday . . . Hezbollah and its allies made the most significant gains by winning 70 seats.

So even if Saudi Arabia wanted him out, it looks like Hariri is hanging onto power. It should also be that Hezbollah is gaining more power. We should remember that Hezbollah is in Syria and has recently targeted by Israel.

The Economist happens to mention one key issue issue:

Meanwhile popular anger over a lack of basic services has grown.

The question always has to be: at what point do citizens just get fed up and start mass protests.

Is there any bad blood between Hariri and Saudi Arabia? Via this article, maybe not:

Arab News:

The Saudi Arabian Charge d’Affaires in Lebanon, Walid bin Abdullah Bukhari, held a Ramadan Iftar banquet at his residence in Al-Birzeh on Saturday evening in honor of Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri in presence of Adviser at the Saudi Royal Court Nizar Al-Alula.

I had to check the date, the article is dated May 20th, 2018.