By Laila Bassam and Parisa Hafezi
BEIRUT/NEW YORK (Reuters) -Hezbollah’s effort to blunt international pressure on Lebanon to disarm the group by appealing to Saudi Arabia last week was the result of back-channel diplomacy by Iran, two Iranian sources and a source with knowledge of Hezbollah thinking said.
Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem appealed to Saudi Arabia to turn “a new page” and set aside past disputes to create a unified front against Israel in a speech last week, a move widely seen as signalling the Iran-backed Shi’ite Muslim group’s alarm at the push to make Lebanon implement a plan for disarming it.
Iran’s involvement, which has not previously been reported, also indicates Tehran’s anxiety that its main Lebanese ally will lose more ground after suffering major reverses during last year’s war with Israel.
Saudi Arabia, a Sunni power that has long regarded Hezbollah as a terrorist organisation that exercises undue influence over Lebanon on Iran’s behalf, has consistently backed disarmament and has shown no signs of changing course since Qassem’s appeal.
Saudi officials did not respond to Reuters requests for comment on Hezbollah’s appeal to the kingdom or whether Riyadh’s policy on the group’s possession of weapons has changed.
The issue of Hezbollah’s weapons is bitterly divisive in Lebanon and has grown increasingly urgent as the United States presses Beirut to announce a plan to disarm the group and as Israel continues air strikes in the country.
IRANIAN INTERVENTION
Iran’s outreach to the Saudis came via Ali Larijani, a senior adviser to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who visited Riyadh recently, according to the two Iranian sources and the source with knowledge of Hezbollah thinking.
The source familiar with Hezbollah thinking said the group believed the Israeli strike on Hamas leaders in Saudi Arabia’s Gulf ally Qatar this month may have changed the situation sufficiently to erase old enmities.
However, the source added that the group had only made its appeal to Saudi Arabia after a signal from the Iranians, saying Larijani had urged Qassem to show goodwill to the kingdom.
One of the Iranian sources said the subject of Hezbollah’s weapons was one of the main topics of discussion during Larijani’s trip to Riyadh. The other Iranian source said Larijani had told Saudi Arabia that neither Lebanon nor the wider region would benefit from disarming Hezbollah.
Former arch regional foes Iran and Saudi Arabia agreed on a rapprochement in 2023 after years of competition that aggravated conflicts and political disputes in several Arab countries.
However, Saudi Arabia remains wary of Iranian influence in Arab states.
Saudi analyst Abdulaziz Sager, head of the Gulf Research Center, said the kingdom’s policy was based on the state having an exclusive right to possess arms and control foreign policy decisions – a stance that meant there was no room for an understanding with Hezbollah.
“The Saudi-Iranian agreement did not change the basis of Saudi demands rejecting Iranian sponsorship of armed sectarian ideological militias linked to Iran’s expansionist and interventionist regional strategy,” Sager said.
(Reporting by Laila Bassam in Beirut, Parisa Hafezi in New York and Maha el-Dahan in Dubai; Writing by Angus McDowall; Editing by Alex Richardson)
