Who would want to be Prime Minister of Lebanon?
It is disturbing news that Lebanese Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri has resigned, saying in a televised broadcast from Saudi Arabia that he feared for his life. Hariri’s father, former Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri, was assassinated in 2005.
In 2011, I visited Lebanon (having previously toured Syria). During the trip, I read a fascinating book called “Beware Of Small States” and my review of the work is essentially a very brief history of Lebanon. You can read this here.
In my web site account of our time in Lebanon, I wrote an introduction to the country which brings the political history up-to-date. You can read this here.
Hariri’s resignation is a feature of the current profound conflict in the Middle East between the Sunni and Shia strands of Islam, the former led by Saudi Arabia and the latter led by Iran.