Saudi-Gulf Escalation Against Lebanon, Not for Kordahi’s Statement but for Hezbollah’s Victory

Quoting from al-masirah.net the crisis that Saudi Arabia provoked with Lebanon because of Lebanese Information Minister George Kordahi’s statement about the US-Saudi war on Yemen, describing it with ‘futile war’, further escalated as he refused to apologize to Saudi Arabia for a mistake he did not commit.

Kordahi was not the first to use the term ‘futile’, but the Secretary-General of the United Nations used it and described the Saudi war on Yemen and called for its cessation. At that time, Saudi Arabia did not respond with the severity that it is today.

Also in Lebanon, Information Minister Kordahi is not the first to say that. The Speaker of the Lebanese Parliament, Nabih Berri, also gave the same description of the war. Walid Jumblatt, one of the leaders of the Saudi alliance, gave the same description, so why Kordahi’s remark was faced by a great reaction by demanding ambassadors to leave, drawing condemnations, pressuring him to resign and expelling workers and preventing Lebanese imports into the Gulf countries.

There is a Lebanese proverb that applies to what is happening today by Saudi Arabia and the Emirates towards Lebanon: “The issue is not pomegranate, the issue is fully-hated hearts.”

There are internal and regional variables that are hurting Saudi Arabia, and Kordahi’s statement was just a pin to punch the Saudi balloon’s.

In Lebanon, there are three things that did not happen as Saudi Arabia desired. Hezbollah succeeded in surprising its opponents, the United States and Israel, and their followers in the Gulf, by breaking the oil embargo and bringing Iranian fuel derivatives to Lebanon, breaking an artificial siege on the Lebanese people.

The second was the formation of a government, although Najib Mikati was at the head of it, one of the poles of the Saudi alliance. However, its formation’s timing did not serve the goals of Saudi Arabia, the US and Israel, who were seeking to create a government vacuum to confuse the resistance.

The third is foiling targeting Hezbollah by accusing it for the port blast’s as investigations were stumbled as the party and its allied forces became aware of US-Saudi manipulation of the issue’s course through a judge linked to the US embassy and other embassies.

The fourth of these matters was the failure of the economic siege and the economic pressure on the resistance, to push for the civil war. Then they use the arm which was always present was the Lebanese Forces Party, headed by Samir Geagea, after the inability of the “Sunni” forces to play this role after their setback in May 2005, and also its fear of the consequences of this war and the bitter experience of the previous war.

Internally, Saudi Arabia wanted to cover up the scandal of the royal family after the former intelligence official Saad Al-Jabri revealed some of its scandals of the current Saudi crown prince, and promised to reveal more. 

Regionally, and it is the most important Saudi crisis is the Yemeni war. Saudi Arabia and its alliance are one step away from a clear defeat and bitter loss of Marib, after the completion of the encirclement of the city of Marib, the last fortress of the coalition and mercenaries in the strategic province.

The liberation of Marib, by the Yemeni Armed Forces, is a turning point and a bright spot that cannot be covered in terms of the coalition’s defeat after 7 years of an aggressive war.

Saudi Arabia and the US envoy Linderking and London failed for a year to dissuade Ansarullah from finishing the battle of Marib. The failure of Al-Qaedah, which was the last US-Saudi card in Al-Baidha province, was not less surprising than the restoration of Nihm and Al-Jawf.

On the other hand, some media outlets quoted Iranian sources as saying that the Saudis asked the Iranians to mediate with Ansarullah to stop liberating Marib and accept a cease-fire according to the Saudi-American offer. The Iranian delegation replied that Ansarullah did not listen to us, and suggested that they go and mediate with Hezbollah. This may anger the Saudis.

There is no doubt that what the Lebanese Minister of Information said does not deserve the surprising Saudi and Gulf reaction, especially since his position and what he said remain at the minimum level of what Western officials have said, whose statements were not matched by a similar reaction towards Lebanon.

There is another matter that may have been the reason, which is the Israeli sensitivity towards Lebanon, which stands today as a stumbling block in the way of Gulf normalization with its resistance and the victory it achieved over Israel that makes normalization not the remaining and imposed option as imagined by the Arab regimes of subservience.

Kordahi is not the ‘wanted’ and what he said is nothing new. Rather, the resistance is the one which Saudi want to punish by any price, and under any title, even if the price is the destruction of Lebanon for those in it.

The coming days will reveal the hidden, but the only constant fact is that Lebanon is stronger this time in the face of Saudi pressure, and the voices calling for dignity and independence are getting louder day after day.