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Last Updated: Feb 18th, 2008 - 18:52:41 |
RIYADH (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia, a key backer of Sunni Muslims in Lebanon, advised its citizens on Monday not to travel there because of a deteriorating political and security situation.
Sunni Muslim Saudi Arabia is a major backer of the Sunni-led government in Lebanon which is locked in a political battle with an opposition movement led by Shi'ite group Hezbollah, backed by Iran and Syria.
Lebanon has been without a president since November because of the stalemate, which has led to street clashes between Shi'ites and Sunnis in the past week.
"The foreign ministry advised Saudi citizens not to travel to Lebanon in light of unstable political and security circumstances in Lebanon right now," said a statement reported by the official news agency SPA, in a rare move for Saudi Arabia.
"This is to ensure safety and security and prevent being exposed to any harm," it said, citing a ministry source. "The ministry called on Saudis in Lebanon to take precautions and care in their movements."
Lebanon's 15-year civil war ended in 1990 with a Saudi-brokered peace pact which has been strained to breaking point since the assassination in 2005 of former Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri.
Hariri, a Sunni Muslim leader, was a Saudi citizen and a close ally of Saudi Arabia in Lebanon.
Diplomats and political analysts in Riyadh saw the Saudi announcement as a possible signal of more civil strife to come in Lebanon.
"They could see a real possibility of the situation getting out of control," a senior diplomat told Reuters.
Political analyst Khaled al-Dakhil said: "Perhaps they have intelligence information that something is going to happen or they think the negotiations taking place now on presidential crisis are going nowhere. They are in a position to know."
KEY BATTLEGROUND
Saudi Arabia has been putting pressure on Syria to help resolve the logjam in Lebanon's politics.
Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal visited Russia last week in what a senior diplomat said was an effort to persuade Moscow to exert pressure on Damascus, which Riyadh views as holding up an Arab plan to elect a new president.
Last month the Saudi minister said publicly that Syria should press its allies in Lebanon to reach a deal.
Diplomats in Riyadh say Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah is unlikely to attend an Arab summit in Syria next month unless a new president is voted into office by parliament.
U.S.-allied Arab countries fear the growing influence of non-Arab Shi'ite power Iran and regard Lebanon as a key battleground in holding back the Islamic Republic.
Saudi Arabia has emerged as a leading Arab power in recent years, as surging world oil prices have enabled the U.S. ally to play a more forceful role in settling regional disputes. Saudi Arabia sees itself as the centre of mainstream Sunni Islam.
It has backed Lebanon's economy with injections of cash, and blamed Hezbollah for Israel's 2006 land and air assault on the Arab country, saying it had provoked the Jewish state.
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