Report: Asiri Meets Mashnouq, Positions on Saudi Arabia Explained

A two-hour meeting between Saudi Ambassador to Lebanon Ali Awadh Asiri and Interior Minister Nouhad al-Mashnouq took place over the weekend, where Mashnouq stated that he bears the responsibility of his latest stances that touched on Saudi Arabia, al-Akhbar daily reported on Monday.

Sunday's meeting was described as “explanatory” following Mashnouq's latest stances that accused Saudi Arabia of being behind the visit of al-Mustaqbal Movement chief Saad Hariri to Syria in 2009 and that it has a role in the nomination of Marada chief MP Suleiman Franjieh for the presidency.

Prominent Mustaqbal sources told the daily that Asiri was “friendly” with Mashnouq, taking into consideration the “historic and firm relation between the Minister and Saudi Arabia.”

They considered the meeting as “the beginning of the end of a storm raised by Mashnouq's statements.”

Furthermore, they denied claims that relations were shaken between Mashnouq and Hariri, asserting that "the atmosphere of communication between them in the past two days was not very bad."

Mashnouq fired a series of heated statements in a televised interview last week, where he said that the decision to nominate Franjieh for the presidency was not ex-PM Saad Hariri's idea.

“Suleiman Franjieh's nomination did not come from Saad Hariri, but rather from the British foreign ministry and later the Americans and Saudi Arabia,” Mashnouq had said.

He also stated that the visit of Hariri to Damascus in 2009 and his meeting with Syrian President Bashar Assad happened at the request of Saudi Arabia.

D.A.

M.T.