Saudi Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal has warned against the seriousness of the situation in Lebanon and announced that his country had “lifted its hand” off the mediation it had undertaken with Syria to resolve the crisis in Lebanon, after the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah Bin Abdul-Aziz contacted Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in a “tête-à-tête” to discuss the commitment to end the entire Lebanese problem, a thing which did not happen. Turkey and Qatar have announced the failure of the efforts to resolve the dispute between the parties in Lebanon. The French initiative has stopped. The Doha and Taif accords are at stake while their days may be numbered. Syria is succeeding in achieving its political goals while its allies secure many of their demands following the numerous concessions offered by Saad al-Hariri. Michel Aoun defies the majority and almost threatens the Sunni sect in favor of his allies in Hezbollah and Amal. Saad al-Hariri is faced with many obstacles provoked by his opponents, to the point of toppling his “elected” government. As for Hezbollah's primary concern, it remains Al-Hariri's submission to its will and wishes and his annulment of the international tribunal. But most importantly, Al-Hariri does not shy away from the challenges and insists on running for the premiership of the next government while maintaining the international tribunal that was formed to investigate the assassination of his father and his companions, as this is something he should not compromise about - considering that the excessive concessions and the soft rhetoric have brought him nothing but weakness and dismantlement within his movement. If Hezbollah trusts the soundness of its positions and the innocence of its elements, why is it afraid of the international tribunal, insisting on its thwarting and threatening to take to the street to break its country's back?! Still, did the statements of the Saudi foreign minister help Druze Deputy Walid Jumblatt barricade himself behind the Syrian and opposition line against his previous allies in the March 14 movement instead of being independent? It seems that Al-Faisal's statements were exactly what Jumblatt was waiting for to announce his alignment alongside the opposition, although for over a year now he has been flirting with Hezbollah, preferring the party's trench and succumbing to the instructions and orders of its command, as is the case of Michel Aoun. In this context, the majority of the politicians know that Jumblatt cannot be relied on since he is a leader with “conflicting positions” who rolls his sect from one hill to the other and from one slope to the other, thus moving based on his “mood” and not on political principles. Today, Lebanon is once again heading toward “an unknown fate,” as the “warlords” and the “traders in crises” have re-transformed into an arena for sectarian conflicts and internal divisions. Lebanon is back to the dark political tunnel due to the dispute over the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, while all the Arab diplomatic efforts that used up their energies to form Al-Hariri's government were lost, after this government was toppled by the opposition with the resignation of its ministers without any regard for the agreements. On the night of the fall of the government, I arrived to Beirut on a quick trip. I tried to listen to the opinions on the street and found that everyone was disconcerted about what was happening, and that the majority of the people were mad at the politicians who placed their interests ahead of those of the citizens and the country's stability. The people said they wanted to live, that they were tired of the conflicts and the disputes between the politicians due to the obstinacy of the different sides, the divergence between the agendas and the disregarding of the country's interest. Since the July 2006 war, the Beirut Airport has been filled with the private jets of presidents, ministers, dignitaries and mediators who have come to resolve the Lebanese crisis. Indeed, as soon as a plane took off, another one landed and as soon as a minister left, another one arrived in order to push the Lebanese toward concord and eliminate the ghost of war between the different sects. However, despite these massive diplomatic efforts which were never deployed toward any other Arab country, the leaders in Lebanon seemed to be insisting on seeing their country become the point of intersection for all the agendas in the region, a scene for the different crises, and a market for the traders of wars and strife. One can say that the Lebanese parties enjoy an exceptional ability to thwart the initiatives and violate the agreements, thus rendering the situation in the country highly explosive and the fight awaiting the firing of the first bullet. On October 18, I wrote an article headlined “Lebanon and Denial” in which I wondered about the secret behind the Saudi interest in Lebanon, stressing the necessity of directing the Saudi compass toward Iraq and Yemen for being closer to Saudi Arabia than Lebanon, and for being more important than Lebanon on the political and strategic level, and also due to the fact that the situation in them can impact the Kingdom. Today, I support what was stated by Prince Saud al-Faisal regarding the Kingdom's lifting of its hand off Lebanon once and for all, considering that the Saudi government should not pay more attention to the situation in Lebanon than it does to the situations in Iraq and Yemen! Moreover, the diplomatic energies and humanitarian aid should go to the more important and influential states, especially in light of the lack of credibility of some Lebanese and the rapid denial of the ongoing Saudi efforts to ensure concord and peace on its soil ever since the civil war. I still believe that the time has come for the Arabs and the West to let Lebanon face its destiny alone, after some of its leaders thwarted all the diplomatic efforts and depleted all the energies without any consideration. This will allow the latter to feel that Lebanon is merely a small state on a large global map, and that the object of their disputes does not mark the end of the world.
