MBS by Ben Hubbard

Author:Ben Hubbard
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3
Publisher: Crown
Published: 2020-03-09T16:00:00+00:00

WE HAVE REASON TO BELIEVE OUR PRIME MINISTER HAS BEEN KIDNAPPED BY SAUDI ARABIA

A FEW DAYS AFTER the attendees of the investment conference left Riyadh, Saad Hariri, the prime minister of Lebanon, returned home from his own trip to the kingdom in a good mood. For one of the top politicians in Lebanon, a small, turbulent, and dysfunctional country sandwiched between Israel and Syria on the Mediterranean coast, few things were more important than his relationship with the kingdom. Business dealings with Saudi Arabia had made his family rich, and the Saudis were the main patrons of his political party, funding its campaigns and helping it hold ground against rivals backed by Syria and Iran. Hariri was also seen as the political guardian of the country’s Sunni Muslims, many of whom saw him as a bridge to the wealthy Sunni kingdom.

As he disembarked from his private jet, he bore good news for his government in Beirut. He had met with Mohammed bin Salman and came away thinking that an expansion of Saudi-Lebanese cooperation was on the way. There had been talk of new trade deals and the restoration of $3 billion in aid for the Lebanese army that the Saudis had promised and later canceled. Hariri felt that he had convinced MBS, who had been making belligerent vows to confront Iran across the region, not to do so in Lebanon. Hezbollah, which was backed by Iran, was the most powerful political and military force in the country, where it used its clout to menace Israel and frustrate American and Saudi plans. It was also the most formidable rival to Hariri’s party, but he worried that any confrontation could tip the country into economic crisis or civil war.

Hariri left the airport, climbed into his motorcade vehicle, and threw himself into activities fit for a head of government. His first stop was to inaugurate a new training center for the Lebanese national airline. Wearing a dark suit and a red tie, with his black hair slicked back, the 47-year-old politician strolled down a red carpet and cut a ribbon before smiling for photos with other dignitaries. Beirut’s airport was named for his father, Rafic Hariri, a former prime minister and towering figure in Lebanese politics who had been assassinated with a car bomb on Beirut’s seafront in 2005. As was his custom during his public appearances, the younger Hariri wore a pin on his lapel bearing his father’s picture.

The next day, he briefed his cabinet about the good news from Saudi Arabia and said he planned to return to Riyadh in a few days to see King Salman and finalize the new agreements. That night, he received a call from MBS’s protocol office inviting him to return to the kingdom to spend the weekend in the desert with the crown prince. He accepted.

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