Sources told The Cradle last month that Riyadh will push for the resistance’s disarmament even at the cost of civil war in Lebanon
News Desk - The Cradle
According to the report, Bin Farhan said the disarmament of Hezbollah and other armed resistance factions in the country “will continue until the end and the decision is final.”
“There is no problem over this issue with any of the Lebanese components and the kingdom is keen for that to take place rationally and without any domestic tensions,” the foreign minister went on to say, according to Al-Akhbar.
The minister is also quoted as saying that the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) enjoys Saudi “support,” adding that Riyadh “appreciates” the army’s “achievements” but “wants them to continue” because they “have not been sufficient.”
“The kingdom wants the best relations with the Lebanese state and it is open to good ties with the various Lebanese forces and components,” he was further quoted as saying by the newspaper.
Saudi Arabia has, for years, taken a hostile stance against the resistance in Lebanon, and has been an active player in recent US-Israeli efforts to disarm Hezbollah.
Multiple reports since the start of last year have said that Gulf countries, including Saudi Arabia, have conditioned their financial support for reconstruction in Lebanon on the disarmament of the resistance.
Despite historical enmity between the Kingdom and Hezbollah, the two sides have recently boosted engagement – as Riyadh seeks to maintain influence within the Lebanese political scene.
A top Hezbollah official visited Saudi Arabia last month and held talks with officials, Lebanese reports said.
“Today, under the weight of new regional calculations, rising Israeli belligerence, and the cracks in American hegemony, that once-intractable hostility [between Hezbollah and the kingdom] is giving way to a more ambiguous and tactical coexistence,” Lebanese journalist Tamjid Kobaissy wrote for The Cradle last month.
“What is developing is neither an alliance nor even reconciliation. But for the first time, Hezbollah and Riyadh are probing the edges of a relationship long defined by zero-sum enmity. A pragmatic detente is emerging, shaped less by goodwill than by the shared urgency to contain spiraling instability across the region,” he added.
Yet the kingdom is still pushing for the goal of dismantling Hezbollah as an armed resistance movement, which the group rejects.
An informed political source told The Cradle last month that “the kingdom informed the former Lebanese army commander – now the country's president – Joseph Aoun, that it would proceed with its plans even if they triggered civil war or fractured the military.”
The source also said Saudi pressure helped pave the way for Beirut’s cabinet decision to disarm Hezbollah, based on the roadmap provided by US envoy Tom Barrack.
According to another recent report by Al-Akhbar, Saudi Arabia’s escalating rivalry with the UAE has also shaped its policy in Lebanon lately.
The report says the kingdom has been angered by failure from officials in Lebanon to align with Riyadh on issues including the recent UAE escalation in Yemen, while noting that Saudi Arabia believes there has been “broader Emirati infiltration within the Lebanese political landscape.”
Israel has continued to bombard southern Lebanon on a daily basis in violation of a ceasefire reached in late 2024. Over a dozen Israeli airstrikes hit multiple areas in the south on 19 January.
Lebanon says it has completed the first phase of Hezbollah’s disarmament in the south Litani area. Israel claims, however, that the group has been secretly rearming – using this as an excuse to repeatedly threaten launching a new campaign against the country.
Hezbollah says it is eventually willing to discuss incorporating its weapons into the Lebanese army as part of a defensive strategy, but rejects any such talks until Israel withdraws all its forces from the country and completely ends its daily attacks.
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