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Saudi Arabia quits Lebanon mediation efforts
Saudi Arabia on Wednesday abandoned efforts to mediate in Lebanon's political crisis, warning of a "dangerous" situation as all eyes turned to a Turkish-Qatari bid to defuse tensions.In an interview with the Saudi-owned Al-Arabiya television news channel, Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal said the Saudi king was "pulling his hand" from Lebanon. He said the monarch -- whose country is a key ally of Lebanon's embattled caretaker Prime Minister Saad Hariri -- took the decision after Saudi-Syrian efforts for rival camps in the tiny Mediterranean country to reach a compromise failed. Faisal said the King and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad had endeavoured in recent months to address the situation in Lebanon as a "whole". "When that did not happen, the (king) said he was pulling his hand out," Faisal said. He added that the situation was "dangerous" and could lead to the partitioning of the multi-confessional country. Posted by: tipper 2011-01-19 |
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