Beirut • Lebanese prime minister Saad Hariri resigned from office Saturday in a surprise announcement that shook the country's fragile politics and suggested that deeper instability could follow.
In a televised address from the Saudi capital, Riyadh, Hariri accused Iran of creating a "state within a state" inside Lebanon, a reference to the Iranian-backed Hezbollah movement which wields significant power over his government.
Hariri's resignation was expected to sharply raise tensions in a country where politics have often been overshadowed by those in its much larger neighbor, Syria. It also highlighted the uneasy power struggle between Saudi Arabia and Iran, which both have interests and allies in Lebanon.
Lebanon is sharply divided along a camp loyal to Saudi Arabia, headed by the Sunni Muslim Hariri, and a camp loyal to Iran represented by Hezbollah. President Michel Aoun, who was elected in October 2016 after more than two years without a president, is also close ally of Hezbollah.
In a pointed speech, Hariri suggested that he feared for his life and said the atmosphere in Lebanon is similar to the one that existed before his father, the late Prime Minister Rafiq al-Hariri, was assassinated in 2005.
"I refer explicitly and unequivocally to Iran, which sows sedition, devastation and destruction in any place it settles in," he said.
The announcement appeared to come as a bolt from the blue, taking officials on both sides of the divide by surprise. A source close to Hezbollah said that they had not expected the resignation. In a brief statement, Lebanon's president, Michel Aoun, said that Hariri had notified him of the decision, and that would be discussed further when the former prime minister he returned to Lebanon.
Saad Hariri was appointed prime minister in late 2016, heading a 30-member national unity cabinet that included Hezbollah. He previously served as prime minister, starting in November 2009, but he lost the title in early 2011, when the Hezbollah members of his cabinet resigned.
"The evil that Iran spreads in the region will backfire on it," Hariri said Saturday.
The speech drew immediate criticism from Iranian officials, who pointed to his decision to resign from Saudi Arabia, not Lebanin, and depicted the move as part of a broader power play.
Husain Sheikh Al Islam, an adviser to Iran's foreign minister, suggested that Hariri's resignation had somehow been organised by President Trump and Saudi Arabia's crown prince Mohammad bin Salman in an attempt to destabilise the region during an already turbulent period.