Saudi Arabia scrapped $3 billion in pledged military aid to Lebanon, blaming the prominent role in national affairs of the Hezbollah group backed by chief Saudi rival Iran.
The decision to abandon funding offered in 2013 was taken to protest Lebanon’s failure to condemn an attack on the Saudi embassy in Iran “as the so-called Hezbollah confiscates the will of the state,” the official Saudi Press Agency reported on Friday. Hezbollah’s criticism of Saudi Arabia, and its “terror against the Arab and Muslim community,” had led Riyadh to reevaluate its ties to Lebanon, the agency said. Another $1 billion in assistance to the Lebanese police force was also axed.
