Recently, in Middle East, tensions have occurred between Lebanon and several Gulf countries, including Saudi Arabia, which decided to sever relations with Beirut.
About a month ago, in Lebanon, a new government was actually appointed, which claimed to recover the national economy, counting on the support of traditional allies in the Golf. As a response, end October, Saudi Arabia called its ambassador in Beirut and summoned Lebanese ambassador in Riyadh to leave. At the same time, Saudis announced the cessation of their imports from Lebanon. A few days later, UAE, Bahrain and Kuwait followed the example of Saudi Arabia, while Oman Sultanate and Qatar have kept an unclear position.
The pretext invoked by Saudi Arabia for braking relations with Lebanon was the fact that, in a public statement, Lebanese minister of information has criticised Gulf countries' involvement in Yemen war. In fact, Saudi Arabia - where Sunnite Islam is the official confession - believes that Hezbollah, backed by the Shiite Iran, has excessively great influence in Lebanon. In Yemen also, Houthi rebels are backed by Shiite Iran and Lebanese Hezbollah. Therefore, the actual conflict in the area is between Sunnite and Shiite confessions, namely between Shiite Iran and Sunnite Saudi Arabia, which are disputing their regional hegemony in the region.
For Lebanon, cessation of exports to Saudi Arabia means a considerable loss. Last year, they were about 255 million dollars. Lebanon is weakened by repeated political crisis, the Beirut harbour deflagration, its economic collapse and infrastructure bankruptcy. Furthermore, half million Lebanese are working in Gulf countries.
These tensions between Saudi Arabia and Lebanon happen in the very moment when Iran and Saudi Arabia hardly negotiate a normalisation of their relations, and Iran wishes a rapprochement with the United States. Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia fears such rapprochement and, as a consequence, tries to demolish Iranian interests in Lebanon.