A Farsi version of this article appeared in the Iran’s state newspaper Jam-E-Jam, November 12, 2016.

Saudi Arabia has introduced a new phenomenon to the modern world; a kind of political hostage-taking, in which a tribal regime has availed itself of modern international legal instruments to advance its primitive policies. Mandatory residence and resignation of Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Al-Hariri in Saudi Arabia has put forth important questions regarding the reason, legal consequences, response of the countries and international organizations to it, and finally the issue of “breaking the law through legal instruments”- to which the United States has given rise-, and the essay makes an attempt to deal with them.

Why is Saudi Arabia removing its most important ally in Lebanon?
Regional developments have long been against Saudi’s desire; on the one hand, the victory of the Axis of Resistance in the war on terrorism in Syria and Iraq has increased Iran’s regional power and influence; on the other hand, the decrease of Saudi Arabia’s direct military intervention in Yemen, the disagreements between the countries of the Arabian Gulf region and also the unsuccessful efforts to remove Lebanon’s Hezbollah from the power structure have all turned Saudi Arabia into a potential loser in the transition period in the regional power system in the Middle East.
Saudi Arabia has tried to introduce Hezbollah and Iran as the cause of the resignation of Saad Hariri and the emergence of a political void in the Lebanese sovereignty structure so that it could create tension and internal disagreements against the Axis of Resistance while increasing economic pressure on Lebanon as well as making the crisis so critical in such a manner that the only way to sustain the Axis of Resistance would be the retreat of Hezbollah and other political groups opposed to Saudi. In practice, however, the vigilance of Hezbollah and al-Mustaqbal led, unlike Saudi’s desire, to strengthening the unity of the Lebanese, and even the most important Saudi allies in the Lebanese sovereignty were forced to take a firm stand against Saudi Arabia.

An American trick for Breaking the Law through Legal Instruments
Pointing to Hariri’s Lebanese-Saudi citizenship, some analysts say that Saudi Arabia has tried to rescind Hariri’s political immunity following his resignation so that they can detain him as a Saudi citizen by plotting corruption charges. In accordance with Articles 29 and 31 of the Vienna Convention on political relations, officials, including heads of states, enjoy full political and judicial immunity and cannot be detained at any time. Another important point is that the cancellation of a political envoy’s immunity is feasible only through the written declaration of the sending country. Therefore, in this particular case, even if Hariri resigned willingly, the immunities will be enforced until the Lebanese government declares cancellation of his political immunity formally and through a written declaration, and Saudi Arabia cannot detain or rather arrest him under the pretext of Hariri’s Saudi citizenship.
Maybe that is the reason why Saudi Arabia refuses to announce Hariri’s arrest publicly. Saudi’s young leaders are now well versed in these American tricks on breaking the laws in an apparently legal manner. If we take a look at the structure of American sanctions against Iran, and in particular the post-JCPOA sanctions, we see a complex process of legislation that allow the United States to act contrary to the objectives of these laws and treaties without violating international treaties and laws. This is the trick that the new Saudi leaders have taken on the issue of Bahrain, Yemen and now Lebanon, in spite of the fact that their performance seems not as suitable as their American mentors.

Where is the Security Council?
But the third question to be answered is the role of international organizations and the Security Council in solving the Saudi crisis and the modern process of “hostage-taking of officials” by this country. Now even the US State Department, the most important Saudi ally, has implicitly confessed Hariri’s capture in Saudi Arabia. Hostage-taking of the head of government of a foreign country is unprecedented in the history of contemporary international relations and to ridicule all the values and principles that underpinned the creation of the United Nations, the Security Council and international law over the past few decades. If Saudi’s oil and financial strength is the reason why these international institutions are completely silent, then perhaps it would be better to talk about the end of the Western international system and the attempt to formulate a new and collective mechanism, which is what Iran is preparing for.

*Mojtaba Mousavi is the founder and editor of Iran’s View. 

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“Despite all the internal fractions and the continuation of the crisis in Syria, the Resistance is ready and prepared to defeat Israel at any time, marking a victory for Lebanon that would change the regional equations. The Syrian crisis would never stop us from our main priority that is [our] preparedness to confront any attack by the Zionists in the future,” Qavouq said.

On Tuesday a car bomb rocked a stronghold of Hezbollah in the south of the Lebanese capital, setting several cars on fire and wounding 37 people in a major security breach of a tightly-guarded area.

On the same day an attempted suicide attack in the Iranian southern city of Chabahar failed after the security guards of the governor’s office recognized the attacker.

Political observers describe these two attacks against Iran and its close ally Hezbollah on same day as a warning from Saudi Arabia and the US to Iran and Hezbollah about their role in Syria’s fighting against the rebels.

In recent months Syria’s President Bashar Al-Assad has been successful in defeating rebels in most of Syria.

To get more insight into the subject, Iran’s View interviewed Middle East Analyst Hossein Sheykholeslam. Mr. Sheykholeslam served as a political deputy of Iran’s Foreign Ministry for 16 years and also as Iran’s ambassador to Syria for three years. He is now The International Affairs Advisor to Ali Larijani, the speaker of Iran’s Parliament.

“The Muslim world and the influential countries in West Asia and North Africa are trapped in an American-Israeli plot, [due to which] their ability and power to fight against Washington and Tel Aviv is wasted in fighting each other,” said Sheykholeslam, adding “The White House and Tel Aviv officials know they are not able to fight Muslim countries in military ways, so they have tried to counteract the anti-Israeli anti-American potential of the nations in the region through engaging them in a conflict against each other.”

The Parliamentary Advisor in Foreign Affairs referred to Israel’s defeats in its military attacks against Hezbollah in the past. “In 2006 the Zionist Regime fought against Hezbollah for 33 days and was defeated. The next war took 22 days [ending in Israel’s defeat] and during the last one Israel could attack Gaza  for only 8 days and for the first time a small part of Palestine and the Palestinian nation was able to defeat the whole of Israel and impose its conditions for a ceasefire on Tel Aviv. Therefore Israel cannot start a new military attack due to Hezbollah’s deterrence.”

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Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said in an interview with Lebanese Al-Manar TV that the country already received the first shipment of S-300 missiles from Russia and will receive the second shipment soon.

Al-Akhbar newspaper’s website published some important remarks of the President Assad’s recorded interview which is to broadcast from Al-Manar TV on Thursday night.

“We will participate in Geneva-II conference but we are not optimistic to its result,” Assad said. Geneva talk is due to be held possibly in June.

Assad confirmed military presence of Lebanon’s Hezbollah group in Syria and said: “Hezbollah’s forces are in border regions of Syria with Lebanon and they are fighting against Terrorist groups but we are handling the war.”

“Almost 100,000 armed terrorists entered Syria with support of Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey,” he said.

Syrian President warned to “respond immediately” to any future attack by Israel.

Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem also said on Wednesday that Syria will immediately respond to “any possible future attacks by the Zionist regime.”

In an interview with Lebanese al-Mayadeen TV, Al-Moallem said that any response from Damascus will be given without a warning.

“Syria will not let any Israeli aggression go unanswered without retaliation. The retaliation will be the same size as the aggression, and the same type of weapons will be used,” he said.

Moallem added that Syria would take part in the upcoming talks in Geneva without any precondition, adding that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad would remain president until the next presidential election scheduled to be held in 2014.

“From now until the next elections, President Bashar al-Assad is the president of the Syrian Arab Republic,” he said.

The Syrian foreign minister noted that any deal reached in the Geneva talks would be put to a referendum inside Syria. “If it wins the support of the Syrian people, we will go ahead with it,” Moallem said.

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In response to reports of Russia’s supply of the sophisticated s-300 anti aircraft missiles to Syria IransView asked an Iranian MP his opinions.

Mehdi Sanaei, a member of the Iranian Majlis’ National Security and Foreign Policy Commission and the Chairman of Iran-Russia Parliamentary Friendship Group said in an interview with Iran’sView: “Russia has employed a more clear and determined foreign policy in the Middle East due to several reasons including the reelection of president Putin, also the enduring American intervention in different countries especially in the Middle East and because of the Libyan scenario.”

According to Sanaei, the U.S. and its allies passed a resolution in the UN [on Libya] but they “operated as they wanted” and denied Russia’s concerns.

He recalled “having the authority to impose a No Fly Zone in Libya, and the violation of international laws by the U.S. in Iraq, Libya and Afghanistan, the misusing of the resolution of the U.N. Security Council and the loss of Russia’s interests in Iraq, Libya and now the most important and the most recent one; Syria” as the reasons for Russia’s full political and military support for Damascus.

Sanaei believes that evidence shows Russia is serious in defending against any military intervention in Syria and emphasizes the political solutions based on the Geneva agreement.

On the possibility of Iran’s direct intervention in Syria he said: “Iran, Hezbollah and the so-called “Axis of Resistance” in the Middle East consider Syria as a front for their resistance and they will never compromise on that.”

“Iran doesn’t think direct intervention in Syria is necessary but it supports this country and provides advice and suggestions to the Syrian government”, said the Iranian MP.

“Iran’s and Hezbollah’s support has definitely led to more Russian support and changed the game,” he said.

Recently, contradictory leaks are revealed about the technologically advanced Russian S-300 Missiles transferred to Syria and even some pro-Syria media claimed that soon these missiles are operated in Syria.

US Secretary of State John Kerry reacted to the news and said the sale of S-300 air defense systems by Russia to Syria would be “destabilizing” for the region.

The British weekly Sunday Times quoted an unnamed Russian official as saying Israel has managed to convince Moscow that if the missiles will fall into the wrong hands, they can be used to attack civilian aircraft at Ben Gurion Airport.

But Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said on Tuesday that the air defense system was a “stabilizing factor” that could dissuade “some hotheads” from entering the unrest in Syria.

“We consider these supplies a stabilizing factor and believe such steps will deter some hotheads from considering scenarios that would turn the conflict international with the involvement of outside forces,” Ryabkov said.

He added that Moscow would go ahead with the decision since the contract for the delivery of the system had been signed several years ago.

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In an interview with Iran’sView, Dr. Mahdi Motaharnia, an Iranian Middle East Analyst said: the participants of Iranians in the upcoming election will provide Iran a better position, increasing the resistance of the country against “forming coalitions of 4+1 and 4+2 of Arab countries and Israel against Syria and Hezbollah”.

Coalition of 4+1 introduced first in Israeli Yedioth Aharonot newspaper where Alex Fishman, Military analyst reported a new coalition is coded in the U.S foreign ministry reporting as 4+1, which includes Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Turkey and Palestinian National Authority plus Israel and operates against Iran.

 “It will also improve Iran status in Iran nuclear talks”, he said.

Motaharnia pointed out to different opinion about Iran intervention in Syria and said: some in Iran and Lebanon emphasize the necessity of powerful intervention of Iran and Hezbollah if any other countries decide to intervene in Syria.”

 “Other analysts believe the present events in the region lead to a chaos  to paving the way for other countries to intervene in Syria”; he said, “while the direct presence of Iran and Hezbollah might leave negative effects on public opinion, legitimizing the NATO involvement, under the leadership of the U.S.”.

He concluded that all the analysis should be evaluated precisely and the moves of the U.S in the region should be wisely considered.

A new regional coalition against Iran: 4+1

Alex Fishman reported that according to his Israeli and American sources, the purpose of forming this coalition of 4+1 is confronting with Iran, Syria and Hezbollah.

“First, the U.S will not discuss the regional defense agreement like NATO”, he pointed out, “but rather, they insist on cooperation among these countries, especially on security information exchanging and bilateral visits.”

He added: the members of this informal coalition will exchange information and security warnings and will cooperation in order to defense against terrorist plots as the Islamic extremists have increased their activities in the region.

“The U.S faces challenges to make Israel and Saudi Arabia cooperate”, he reported, “but there are some agreements made behind the scene which will be revealed soon.”

“Last February, in the International meeting of Defense Ministers in Berlin, Ehud Barak and Salman bin Abdul-Aziz, First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defense of Saudi Arabia shook hands warmly”, he wrote.

He pointed out to the shift of Jordan policies toward Syria and added: the increase of challenges in Syria- Jordan- Israel borders in recent months resulted in closer cooperation between Amman and Tel-Aviv.

“Regarding Turkey and Israel, their extended economic relation, and having Iran and Syria as the common threat have led to their common point of view to regional issues”, he reported.

Fishman concludes: the U.S doesn’t consider Egypt as a perfect government and they define it as a “half-government”; they don’t expect much of Cairo and that’s why they try to make Bahrain and Qatar join this coalition; which aims at confronting Iran. The members of this coalition are also worried about the arm export of Iran to Syria.”

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“Forming Hezbollah was a result of enemy’s invasion to Lebanon and now, hezbollah has a [surprising] weapon that they [enemies] don’t expect,” Naghdi said during an speech to a demonstration after Tehran’s Friday prayers against recent Israeli air strikes to Syria.

“Hamas also formed in reaction to Israeli occupation of Palestine. And with god’s will, a powerful force will be established in Syria and will wipe out Israel,” he said.

Criticizing some Arab countries diplomacy with Israel, he said: “Leaders of Arab countries should know that the Muslim nations are aware and [any kind of] support from Israel will have a miserable fate for them.”

The head of Hezbollah, Sayed Hassan Nasrallah, in an address televised to an audience in Beirut on Thursday said he is ready to receive “game changing” weapons from Syria.

Syria is believed to be a conduit for Iranian weapons bound for Hezbullah and Palestinian resistance groups such as Hamas and Islamic Jihad.

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