Published by
Al-Araby
Al-Araby
In July 2017, then Lebanese PM Saad Hariri stood next to US President Donald Trump in the Rose Garden and endured a few moments of awkwardness as Trump thanked him for being on “the front lines” of the fight against Hezbollah. As Hariri’s grimace and foreign reporters indicated, he was far from the front lines in the fight against the powerful Shia militia. Instead, he depended on its support for his political survival. “Lebanon is a victim of geopolitics – this issue will linger on” Just a few months later, Hariri resigned from his position as PM while on a visit in Riyadh, a move he quickly …