Saudi Ambassador to Beirut Waleed Bukhari demanded on Tuesday Lebanese authorities to arrest and turn over to Riyadh a suspect who had made threats to the Saudi embassy earlier this month.
Bukhari met with Lebanon’s caretaker Interior Minister Bassam Mawlawi.
The envoy said the suspect, a Saudi national called Ali Hashem and who resides in Lebanon, had made “terrorist threats” against the embassy.
Bukhari warned of the repercussions of the “hostile policies that are made from Lebanon” towards the Arab Gulf.
Bukhari urged Lebanese security agencies to complete the legal and security measures to ensure the suspect’s arrest so that he can be turned over to Saudi Arabia, where he is wanted.
The ambassador said Saudi Arabia’s diplomatic efforts aim to establish a sustainable security net to confront the challenges that are threatening Lebanon’s security, stability and unity.
Mawlawi, for his part, stressed Beirut is committed to “prevent any harm of any kind from affecting our Arab brothers.”
Hashem made his threats in a series of tweets, prompting the Interior Ministry to order the concerned security agencies to carry out the necessary investigations and arrest him “out of keenness on Lebanon’s interest and security and its good ties with friendly nations, especially Saudi Arabia.”
The threat was widely condemned in Lebanon and demands were made for Hashem’s arrest.
Separately, Bukhari condemned the ongoing smuggling of drugs from Lebanon to Saudi Arabia.
In remarks to the press after his talks with Mawlawi, he revealed that since 2015, the Kingdom has seized around 700 million narcotic pills and hundreds of kilograms of cannabis smuggled from Lebanon.
In April 2021, the Kingdom suspended the import of fruits and vegetables from Lebanon after a large amount of captagon pills were discovered smuggled in a pomegranate shipment.
Lebanon has since intensified its crackdown on the illicit activity after coming under heavy criticism from other Gulf countries.
