i think anything in lebanon's history has ever been sorted out by lebanon on its own and i think that we would be incredibly naive and optimistic to assume that we can sort it out by ourselves as well but i think that the the calls by the international combined members in the international community to to for lebanon to try and deal with this and the the the voices that are coming out from lebanon in unison with the same message is it's positive but i think i think eventually late this is this is an issue that saudi has with iran and this is an issue that will only be solved between saudi arabia and iran. as beverly said lebanon is is has always been a battlefield for other forces they were going to have a mainly we're going to have to leave our discussion for today come i was in the north and beverly milton edwards thank you all very much for joining us and thank you too for watching you can see the program again any time by visiting our website that's al-jazeera dot com and for further discussion to go to our facebook page that's facebook dot com ford slash a.j. inside story you can

to lebanon to. all the lebanese and the outcomes that the meeting of future movement did and yesterday that we all jointly call for the immediate immediate return of saddle the prime minister to lebanon. if he has resigned let him come back let him come back to the presidential palace and make a statement let him come back and speak freely. to. declare that he has resigned or it is june studios or even declare the war against hezbollah let him return to lebanon. yes. the prime minister of lebanon. remains just under house arrest. is a grave matter that cannot and the against which. honest men should stand silent and here we must reiterate that the prime minister of lebanon is held and so the arabia and that's how you answer it is must release him and the lebanese must work together to have him return. to lebanon and speak of his own free will matter third. we. d.m. that is sick nation cited by the prime minister unlawful illegal and i'm going to sit. and of no value. simply because it was render und

ths lebanon today is not like lebanon of one nine hundred seventy five or ninety in ninety five it's a completely different country with a very powerful group called hezbollah with external links that has been able to maintain its strength and be directly incorporated into the governing structure so it's a big challenge for saudi arabia to find foreign policy tools that are effective rather than inept as they have been in the last ten or fifteen years or so and most of our a very very strong and empowered hezbollah of course attracts the the attention of israel as well which has been making some bellicose noises in recent months with the more muscular saudi arabia apparently more willing to to take military action and does he run feel that it would meet that head on but it meet that challenge head on or is there a possibility that there is another form another forum through which dialogue perhaps could be false that well of iran so far doesn't believe that these military. threats by israel or by saudi arabia would come into action as a matter of fact this is a psychological warfare a

and that's not it's not very difficult to destabilize lebanon lebanon is a very fragile place go ahead in beirut. well just to add to get said before about. solomon is that yes on the one hand he is trying to capitalize power prior to taking on the throne of the saudi kingdom but at. same time he's kind of tapping into some reforms that have gotten a bit of positive review internally and also externally so he's using that perhaps for example beside the issue of the entry reform agenda he's using some of the his statements on the need for social change and the need to you know address change the way the country is going for the last thirty years with you know giving women the right to drive and and other issues speaking to the youth so that's on one hand kind of to also complete the picture in terms of what i believe. man is doing but also when you when we get to lebanon yes indeed i mean we can't say with certainty that he has lost yet. absolutely as you rightly said there has been a display of national unity given what has happened in the last two weeks or less than two weeks since ho

cautions against any party within or outside lebanon using lebanon as a venue for proxy conflicts an obvious message to saudi arabia but his boss u.s. president donald trump has been more willing in the past to give saudi arabia a green light to do what it wants it remains to be seen if that will apply to lebanon but at the united nations growing alarm after saudi ordered citizens to leave that country this is a matter of great concern to us and what we want is for peace to be preserved in lebanon. it is essential that no new call your ups in the region it's good to have devastating consequences a critical time for a country wondering what's next for them and their leader political hane al jazeera washington all right let's turn to james still see now is a senior fellow at the rajaratnam school of international studies he joins us via skype from singapore thank you for talking to us i may say you can read almost a wink to intervene in and what many people are describing as that some is dangerous moment in lebanon for many many is. that's true nonetheless the fact is that i think the

hello and welcome to the program this hour lebanon's prime minister saad hariri his resignation came as a surprise the fact that he did it from riyadh accusing iran and its lebanese ally has boller of sowing strife in the arab world sent shock waves through the region. i hereby announce my resignation as prime minister from the lebanese government now is the will of the lebanese is strong and that determination is steadfast and will overcome any attempts to impose any custodianship over them from powers either inside or outside our country i would like to say to iran and its followers that they will be losers in their intervention in the arab affairs our nation will wake up as it did in the past and bad hands in the region will be cut off from. now a former lebanese president earlier throwaway once said lebanon has always been the battlefield of others' wars and many fear that that could be happening again now hariri is resignation shatters a delicate deal that put him in a coalition government after a two year political vacuum it's not the first time a lebanese government has collap

in lebanon. is surprised for this sudden resignation to understand the real reason behind the resignation is the key to know a lot of things about the surroundings. for example. forcing the prime minister to resign is it because of an internal affair i think no i think the lebanese would say the man was ok the man was in contact with everyone the man was active the man was effective and sessions of the government of the cabinets of the ministerial committees were ok so there is no an internal affair that will lead him to resign some lebanese. some of them say the prime minister was not happy because of this or thought because of this minister this is not a reason for the prime minister to resign this is just a way to score point there is no. affair. for the prime minister to resign then we need to go into saudi arabia and to see what is the reason is it because of an internal conflict between the princes in saudi arabia a conflict for the throne a conflict between the. hero parent or the crown pr

for the interest of lebanon lebanon's relationship with other countries. relationship with lebanon and the area. i mean. again and i just. wanted to know i should talk about the campaigns against the saudi there's. also the. interference of that a news. now of course i am the head of the. coming unstuck world blog and the premier league and now we have to take another short break. and then i'll ask you about your visit to the united arab emirates. this. preview. what i get. so we've been listening. we've been listening to an interview by the lebanese prime minister saad hariri in the saudi capital riyadh this following his shock resignation just about a week ago he's been answering questions about the circumstances of his resignation actually his living conditions right now let's go to the lebanese capital beirut was in a holder is standing by and in recent days we've really seen lebanese people across the board say no rallying in support of saad hariri and voicing concern as to why he hasn't returned to the country would this interview satisfy those conce

independence of lebanon democracy. is the basis. lebanon. just frightening you with economic sanctions why they're starting with economic sanctions because there's him and his party doing things. this is one. lebanon. this is a new saudi arabia today yes there's a new southeast today. before there was love to lebanon from saudi. now there's more love even than before. but there is a difference now saudis are being killed. going on blamed for this head of. the throes of the war in yemen yes yes. how lebanon can change the international balance. let me tell you something let me tell you something. i will not allow anybody to lodge your. eleven on whether it's regional. or not this is you know about this. you know my position regarding this matter. talks that it is trying to push israel to hit lebanon attack lebanon. we know what the games of israel. through learn our lessons. you know that this is about. to hit lebanon let's be logical let's be logical. because story and the. so how does history that this never happened in two zero zero six wh

that ignition was from the area why the man was allowed to come back to lebanon and the from lebanon the can that is resignation. well in other developments there's been a major shake up in the top ranks of saudi arabia's government and ruling family between saturday night and sunday morning eleven saudi princes four sitting cabinet ministers and dozens of former ministers were arrested the government describes all this is the work of a new anti corruption committee which itself was only formed on saturday night among those detained is prince our waleed bin talal he's best known as a billionaire investor controlling major stakes in twitter twenty first century fox and citi group and previously listed in time magazine's one hundred most influential people's list the most significant in total move involves prince met have been abdullah who was removed from his post as the head of the national god he's the son of the late king abdullah and was considered a contender for the throne also out is the minister of economy and planning adil been hammered by key the dismissals are widely seen a

in beirut lebanon and we discussed the ongoing situation in lebanon in an exclusive interview with its top diplomat. in lebanon follows the same scenario which is why it's necessary to think radicalism and terrorism with moscow to ensure that we're not threatened lebanon remains state rabia we're still acting this age unless we're forced to act in self-defense and another in the whole because the consequences would affect those. any country can pose us let them apart but leave lebanon alone do not want to believe that any punishment directed against all the lebanese people will have concerts asian but everyone bears responsibility for their actions including hezbollah. to my. question would be well after spending several hours when a person was upset by it ok sion for the experiment berkeley in california may have influenced the result a number of large scale anti nationalist rallies have taken place there throughout the year with some turning violent my colleague andrew farmer spoke to me harlots about the experiment. i was out there for about an hour and in that hour we had about i w

cautions against any party within or outside lebanon using lebanon as a venue for proxy conflicts an obvious message to saudi arabia but his boss u.s. president donald trump has been more willing in the past to give saudi arabia a green light to do what it wants it remains to be seen if that will apply to lebanon but at the united nations growing alarm after saudi ordered its citizens to leave that country this is a matter of great concern to us and what we want is for peace to be preserved in lebanon. it is essential that no new call for meet your ups in the region is going to have devastating consequences a critical time for a country wondering what's next for them and their leader political hain al-jazeera washington or let's go back to santa holden our correspondent who is in the lebanese capital beirut and zain i'm just wondering the lebanese various political factions have managed to come up with a certain amount of political consensus for now at least i'm wondering whether that combined with an overwhelming support for lebanon's territorial integrity for itself and the peace i

in beirut lebanon we discussed the ongoing situation in lebanon and in an exclusive interview with the country's top diplomat. today we're facing another attempt at creating hot beds of chaos and instability which in turn lead to terrorism what is happening in lebanon follows the same scenario which is why it's necessary to finish this tour here in russia but russia has fought most of all against radicalism and terrorism we want to discuss preventative measures with moscow to ensure that we're not threatened lebanon remain stable and we're able to fight terrorism it. then and lebanon is able to counter any threat we are ready for such a scenario but we strive to do everything possible to prevent this from happening and want to have good relations with saudi arabia we're still acting this way and we're not going to change this approach unless we're forced to act in self-defense and the whole we can follow such a constructive policy but we're not immune from hostile actions towards us we see this in the situation with mr hariri anyone could go to war with us but i still doubt that this w

also this week caught in the middle of a bitter saudi iran rivalry lebanon's economy getting squeezed why that matters for the region. a military intervention in zimbabwe but will anything really change for the country's ailing economy. with. so oil rich venezuela always pays its debts even at the expense of its citizens that's been the mantra for so long in this latin american country that lenders have just kept lending but this week everything changed venezuela is now officially in default for the first time it's past the grace period to pay up on two government bonds and one bond issued by the state owned oil company now as more payments a jew it is facing what could be a messy financial unraveling and that spells bad news for a starving population john hendren reports. then this walen is in default the declaration by the ratings agency standard and poor's comes after venezuela with sixty billion dollars in debt in just nine point six billion in its bank accounts missed a second deadline on a debt payment the red carpet was rolled out for a few foreign investors who might be willin

his resignation there two days earlier iran and its ally the lebanon based shia group hizbollah accuse of being behind the move iraq's highest court has declared that no regional province can break away that's in response to september's kurdish secession referendum the central government in baghdad had asked for legal clarification after what it called a misinterpretation of the constitution by kurdish leaders cattle earliest opposed president carter's push to mount has been released from police custody in belgium he and four former ministers handed themselves over to police in brussels after spain issued a european arrest warrant twenty seventeen will be one of the three warmest years on record the un's whether agency made the announcement of the comp twenty three climate change conference in germany these are the first un climate talks since president donald trump decided to pull the u.s. out of the twenty fifteen paris climate agreement fiji is presiding over this conference its prime minister has called for urgent action as the island suffers the effects of climate change. as the h

fairest lebanon fairest and lebanon very long believe lebanon and long live all of you. stepping away from the podium as he looks over the crowd. outside the presidential palace in the lebanese capital beirut. i suspect that might be the national anthem that he is joining in with. there you can see security guards around him people trying to capture this significant moment of recent lebanese history on their cellphones he said you will see me all over lebanon he went on then to name the towns the cities the villages the areas that he will be seen and he said i want to protect the stability of my country we are the moderate people long live lebanon will stay with these pictures as long as they last we're going to talk to our correspondent in beirut hashem hashem didn't son very much like a resignation speech. this was a speech meant to unite to live any and overcome the weeks of uncertainty and anxiety about the future eleven eleven just give you an idea about where i stand what's happening these are the hundreds of supporters saddle had. gathered to hear his house and to

cautions against any party within or outside lebanon using lebanon as a venue for proxy conflicts an obvious message to saudi arabia but his boss u.s. president donald trump has been more willing in the past to give saudi arabia a green light to do what it wants it remains to be seen if that will apply to lebanon but at the united nations growing alarm after saudi ordered its citizens to leave that country this is a matter of great concern to us and what we want is for peace to be preserved in lebanon. it is essential that no new conflict in the region is going to have devastating consequences a critical time for a country wondering what's next for them and their leader political hane al-jazeera washington. all right let's go back now to cars one is in a honda who is live for us in the lebanese capital beirut in center just heard the u.n. secretary general antonio. indicating that this moment is an incredibly tense and dangerous moment potentially for the middle east. well yes eleven on it yet again finding itself in the crossroads lebanon and yet again being the center stage of the

kuwaiti citizens heading out of lebanon their government is one of several gulf states that has ordered its people to leave the country this comes amid sharpening tensions in the region lebanon is being drawn deeper into a power struggle between arch rivals saudi arabia and iran. lebanese prime minister saad hariri is inside the arabia since he was dying and last weekend accusations have been flying that the kingdom is holding him hostage for. iran backed militant group hezbollah says that amounts to a declaration of war the group is accusing saudi arabia of using lebanon as a proxy in its conflict with rival iran. that you are if your problem is with iran why you are attacking lebanon just to prove you have influence we admit that you have influence but if you think that you can defeat the lebanese resistance or its political parties who refuse to comply with you you're mistaken. lebanon's president met with the saudi envoy on friday local media reported that the president demanded harry reasoner turn riyadh says hariri is free to move as he wishes a claim that front supported on frida

lebanon's prime minister has. already made the sudden announcement in a televised statement from the saudi capital riyadh he suggested that his life was in danger and blamed iran for meddling in arab affairs. in the team and we asked to whom. i hereby announce my resignation as prime minister from the lebanese government knowing that the will of the lebanese are stronger and that determination is that force and will overcome attempts to impose. over them from powers either inside or outside of our country long live the people of lebanon. well lebanon politics has been a complex minefield of competing regional and sectarian interests the president must be a maronite christian the prime minister a sunni muslim and the speaker of parliament a shia muslim the country's broadly split between two political camps a u.s. and saudi backed alliance and a pro syrian coalition. to have had differences on how to run the country leading to the collapse of the government at least three times in two thousand and five twenty eleve

outside of our country long live the people of lebanon. well lebanon's politics is a complex minefield of rival regional and sicked hereon interests resignation threatens to inflame tensions between the country sunni and shia muslims the country's government is finely balanced the president must be a maronite christian the prime minister a sunni muslim and the speaker of parliament a shia muslim the country's broadly split between two political camps a u.s. and saudi backed alliance and the pro syrian coalition differences between the two on how to run the country led to the collapse of the government in two thousand and five two thousand and eleven and two thousand and thirteen last year lebanon's parliament swore in a new cabinet dominated by hizbullah and its allies in a major victory for the shiite iran backed side i reread is lebanon's most influential sunni politician and a saudi ally who is a fierce critic of iran and hezbollah the killing of his father refute harry reid by a massive car bomb in two thousand and five was blamed on m

crisis in lebanon. is director of the institute for gulf affairs and he's joining us from washington d.c. thank you very much indeed for your time let me ask you first about the tone of the statement from the u.s. secretary of state rex tillerson what did you make of that. i believe this statement of tillerson is extremely careful and diplomatic it does not give any warning against saudi and the rest of action visit to lebanon it did not address the fate of saddle so it is a really. very. substantial statement because it does not make any policy demands it does not as saudi arabia to refrain from taking any action against the lebanese people and their country we've heard that statement we've heard a statement a further statement from has a ball as well what do you think is going to be one of the likely outcomes in lebanon of this. it's really hard to say when the news that we have been able to get is that. going to way simply use the maximum effort or the maximum to measure against against lebanon. indi

focusing on on lebanon and the interests of the lebanese citizens. this was horary second term as prime minister it previously served between two thousand and nine and eleven horary had followed in his father's political footsteps. griffey career he was assassinated in beirut and face very two thousand and five he'd been seen as the driving force behind lebanon's rehabilitation and reconstruction following civil wars and foreign invasion between one thousand nine hundred ninety five and one thousand nine hundred one. saad tried to continue the family legacy but began to lose popularity as lebanon faced multiple political and economic struggles unemployment has been at more than twenty percent its population of six million includes one and a half million refugees for two years it was unable to elect a president as its parliament was crippled and it couldn't provide basic services such as alec tricity and weiss collection last year harare announced he was backing his rival michel aoun for the presidency the move was seen by analysts as hariri losing st

harvey has decided to steer lebanon away from danger it's a hard step taken at a difficult time. i support the resignation of the government and country are frozen and the country is collapsing and the government's targets have not been met. every decision to quit leaves lebanon facing uncertainty not least the question of who could replace him. well for more i'm joined now by ben to shallower in beirut she's the middle east rector with a high risk both foundation i think tank the region and thanks for being with us hariri says his life was in danger here are his claims seen as credible in lebanon . well you know this nation is always full of rumors sense so we cannot really know what actually has happened about according to a. they have spoken to security permits or actually can purchase that to fly what we can also know for sure is that currently there is a lot of pressure on lebanon pressure coming from damascus to normalize relations with syria and there were discussions last week here on whether eleven and should be the person or country to reappoint and investor to damascus

if threats against lebanon are carried out then. supports hezbollah is always trying to portray. itself is a lebanese party but it does not deny its links with iran and it has political opponents here that's hezbollah but what about the from a community the senate community today i can tell you they feel marginalized they are upset at saudi arabia we were just in a sunni neighborhood a hariri stronghold a few hours ago and what the people were telling us was that this is unacceptable what saudi arabia has done in lebanon will demand that the prime minister is returned we the he is a loss for lebanon he's a loss for us as a community because they see him as their leader in a holder in beirut thank you very much for that dana let's not bring in our social media producer andrew chapin under a lot of conversation online about the situation in lebanon and the fate of everyday what are people saying well let's start off with a tweet that posted earlier i think it helps to start the story you can see she post this on her feet earlier today

the stability of lebanon simply because. this crisis is. about lies in lebanon. chris mitchell can be achieved by providing an atmosphere. free from radicalization. which aims at confronting arms with arms. and settling regional and international calls. this move also. that. you're bringing. the confrontation. another battle fear. this means that those. aren't able to take. place is also aimed at undermining lebanon's economy. well a matter of great significance a strategic significance to. the number one enemy lebanon for. this matter this regard. all this is meant to keep lebanon will. cripple the economy. and. the economic failure of this by the fact that lebanon over the past few years again has been making progress in the words rebuilding its. institutions that. all the above. i will believe that any foreign minister there get burned a seal saying this is an unprecedented matter in effect he went on to say we've had a deviation from my course imposed on us because of what's been going on between the saudi authorities and mr how do you know he has agreed afte

job in lebanon cannot be affected unless he comes to lebanon and submit his resignation according to a legal channel by submitting it to the president of the department at all times of his in terms of his remarks about his resignation he seemed to imply that it might be conditional on the behavior of hezbollah and mean it is no secret that there are concerns about their activities in syria and elsewhere and iran's involvement do you see do you see that there is some room for maneuver on this issue of harry's resignation in terms of it prompting a shift in lebanon. well this is issue which has been raised by somebody about you know hezbollah's involvement in syria has been for the past seven years well i'm making an issue out of it right now this is a big question what sort of missed it how did he understand her and hezbollah mr nasr a lot mr. howard agreed when you had to go to form a unity government and everyone in use that each. side is a position are different also on i mean maybe it is some issues particularly on the syria crisis on the palestine crisis on negotiation and said t

the united states strongly backs lebanon's independence and wants other countries against using lebanon in a larger proxy fight in the region.

lebanon is not syria lebanon is not iran we have an independent foreign policy where the end terrorist of lebanon comes first collecting the tasha butler in paris so that hash as we've been hearing hariri has tweeted he may come back and then the foreign minister i guess the moment been spent he will. call the lebanese foreign minister said that as far as he was aware saad hariri has indicated that he will return to lebanon in the next two or three days until he's tweeted as much of the foreign minister said that every situation was ambiguous it wasn't totally clear whether or not he had freedom of movement or not he said he comes back to lebanon in the next few days that might indicate that he has had freedom of movement if he doesn't it could indicate the contrary now what he said was that would if hariri doesn't return at least by sunday then perhaps lebanon if it's exhausted all other forms of dialogue all other avenues or perhaps lebanon with then escalate this to a wider international level and even take it to the u.n. security council with the latest from paris where the lebanes

on the main governor of lebanon on the main king of lebanon was hezbollah it was never really comp or comprehensive government was not really the way it is supposed to be a national unity government has been has been and still is the kingmaker of of lebanon how do you see resignation obviously it took hezbollah by surprise and this is something that they would have to deal with it's very clear saudi message to hezbollah and lebanon that op and levanon to the region of confrontation between saudi arabia and iran this means that hezbollah will have to deal with this whether either constitutionally and work with the president and other actors in lebanon to come up with a new prime minister it's so far they're not doing that they're not accepting how do yours as a nation they consider him under house arrest how this is going to develop it depends on what's going to happen next by the way it looks if this is not followed up with a practical practical steps to safe save lebanon the security of lebanon the economy of lebanon at the end of the day it would be chaos it would be void and we kno

lebanon's prime minister the sad and heavy d. has resigned he made the announcement in a televised statement he says he sensed that his life was in danger and blamed iran for meddling in arab affairs the moon came on a trip to saudi arabia. are you by our nance my resignation as prime minister from the lebanese government knowing that the will of the lebanese are stronger and there to malaysia is that fatah and will overcome any attempts to impose. over them from powers either inside or outside of our country long live the people of lebanon. or lebanon's politics has been a complex minefield of competing regional and sectarian interests here the president must be a maronite christian the prime minister a sunni muslim and the speaker of parliament a shia muslim countries broadly split between two political camps a u.s. saudi backed alliance and a pro syrian coalition the two of had differences on how to run the country and that's led to the collapse of the government at least three times in two thousand and five two thousand and e

of lebanon comes first. a suicide bomber detonated a car bomb outside a camp used by security forces in southern yemen at least six people were killed several others injured in the attack which happened in the port city of aden i sill has claimed responsibility for the attack meanwhile yemeni officials say the saudi led coalition has bombed the airport in the capital sana'a which is controlled by the hoofy rebels say the runway and ground navigation tower damaged but the u.n. says most of the airport is intact and can receive aid shipments when saudi arabia loosens the blockade imposed on the country eight days ago well the conflict in yemen has cost thousands of people to flee the country seeking safety in djibouti but poor conditions at some refugee camps means basic needs are not being met for most people going to do is one camp in the port town of. motive because it comes in the town of. his home to one thousand two hundred yemeni refugees just last year six thousand refugees lived here most of them have

sovereignty lebanon reaching out to france one time colonial ruler of lebanon france mediating in the crisis weighing in trying to solve this diplomatic turmoil and then we heard from the french president late yesterday saying he invited how did he and his family and how did he accepted that invitation and that he will be coming to france in the next few days and sources close to the resigned prime minister's office have told us that how do you will be returning to lebanon to submit his resignation in the next few days so it was a very confusing picture many here are seeing this as some sort of a deal but saudi arabia has the foreign minister insisting yet again that's how to how to do was not a prince. and the problem in lebanon the source of the tension in the country is hezbollah which iran really blames the story saudi arabia blames for imposing iran's agenda on lebanon so is the lebanese president's assertion that the crisis all its hopes rather the crisis is now over they could correct is he right. well no the crimes this is not over sagal how did his fate we know now more that