Lebanese PM Hariri resigns, attacking Iran, Hezbollah

Lebanon’s prime minister Saad al-Hariri resigned on Saturday (November 4), saying he believed there was an assassination plot against him and accusing Iran and its Lebanese ally Hezbollah of sowing strife in the Arab world.

His resignation brought down the coalition government and plunged Lebanon into a new political crisis, returning it to the front line of a regional competition between Sunni Saudi Arabia and Shia Iran that has also buffeted Syria, Iraq, Yemen and Bahrain.

Hariri, who is closely allied with Saudi Arabia, said in a broadcast from an undisclosed location that Hezbollah was "directing weapons" at Yemenis, Syrians and Lebanese.

In comments directed at Iran, he said the Arab world would "cut off the hands that wickedly extend to it".

It was not immediately clear who might succeed Hariri, Lebanon’s most influential Sunni politician.