Wikileaks: Saudi Arabia Mulled Creating a Strong Anti-Hezbollah Force

08/12/2010 Saudi Arabia has proposed to set up an Arab force to combat Hezbollah group in Lebanon with the help of the U.S., UN and NATO, according to a US diplomatic cable released by Wikileaks on Tuesday.

During a meeting in May 2008 with the U.S. Ambassador to Iraq David Satterfield, the Saudi Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal said a "security response" to the military challenge "posed by Hezbollah in Beirut was necessary .

According to the WikiLeaks document, the Saudi prince feared a Hezbollah victory against the Lebanese government led by then prime minister Fouad Siniora "combined with Iranian actions in Iraq and on the Palestinian front would be a disaster for the US and the entire region."

The Saudi foreign minister further argued that the current situation in Beirut was "entirely military" and so the response should be a military one as well.

There was a need for an "Arab force" drawn from Arab "periphery" states to create and maintain order in and around Beirut, he argued, saying the Lebanese army was "too fragile to bear more pressure," according to the cable from the US embassy in Riyadh.

Such a force would be aided by UNIFIL troops deployed in southern Lebanon, while the "US and NATO would need to provide movement and logistic support, as well as naval and air cover," the cable added. Saud argued that "of all the regional fronts on which Iran was now advancing, the battle in Lebanon to secure peace would be an easier battle to win."

He told Satterfield that Siniora strongly supported the plan but that only Jordan, Egypt and the Arab League were aware of it.

Saud accused the UN troops in southern Lebanon of "sitting doing nothing." But Satterfield said there were real questions about the "political and military" feasibility of such a scheme, and winning a new mandate for UNIFIL would difficult.



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