Hizbullah Reportedly Seeks Rapprochement with Saudi Arabia as Bassil Meets Asiri
Caretaker Energy Minister Jebran Bassil held talks with Saudi Ambassador Ali Awadh Asiri on Tuesday, a move seen as a rapprochement between the March 8 alliance and Riyadh.
An Nahar newspaper said Bassil, who is a leading member of the Free Patriotic Movement that is allied with Hizbullah, had requested to meet with Asiri.
The diplomat said after the talks that Riyadh stands at an equal distance from the Lebanese and hoped there wouldn't be any constitutional vacuum in the country.
Bassil also told reporters that his visit was the result of a mutual desire to have stability in Lebanon.
Bassil's visit was seen as a first step towards a willingness by the Hizbullah-led March 8 coalition to revive contacts between the party and the Saudi capital which Hizbullah deputy chief Sheikh Naim Qassem had visited in the past.
Qassem and Mohammed Fneish, who is currently a caretaker minister, made a three-day visit to Jeddah in December 2006 for a meeting with King Abdullah and his foreign minister Prince Saud al-Faisal.
The visit was aimed at easing tension between the kingdom and Hizbullah, which at the time was leading an opposition campaign to bring down then Prime Minister Fouad Saniora's government.
Abdullah's meeting with the two Hizbullah officials was the first such contact with the Iranian-backed group.
An Nahar did not rule out a similar visit by Qassem in the near future.
But Saudi embassy sources did not provide any details on the alleged rapprochement, telling the daily that Riyadh has always backed dialogue.
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