French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian announced that “the European Union unanimously adopted a decision to impose sanctions on Lebanese figures before the end of this month, and of course this will have repercussions inside Lebanon, and we hope that it will produce a government or speed up the government’s efforts.”
And about the event that was embodied in Maarab, which brought together the leader of the Lebanese Forces party, Samir Geagea and the Saudi ambassador, Walid Al-Bukhari, with businessmen from the world of finance, industry, agriculture, economy and trade. It is interesting that the businessmen were not only affiliated with the Lebanese Forces, but of various affiliations. And they will be partners in developing a solution to address the economic crisis that has developed between the Kingdom and Lebanon.
The meeting took place at the request of the head of the Forces Party, and the Kingdom welcomed the lawsuit and agreed to meet in the wake of the Saudi decision to stop Lebanese products after drug smuggling into its lands. Why Maarab? Because the meeting has reasons that are not limited to Lebanon’s economic and financial problem, but there are political reasons as well. Therefore, this remarkable meeting with its symbolism and connotations cannot be separated from a series of prominent stations that took place in the past weeks, starting with the Italian meeting between the foreign ministers of America, France and Saudi Arabia, passing through the meeting with the Vatican, leading to a meeting in Bkerke Which re-corrected, from the first Christian Maronite spiritual site, the position of Arab Lebanon, and therefore the political one.
Maarab’s meeting, then, is a sequel to this context, and it confirms that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has returned to concern itself with the Lebanese situation, even if some of the basic facts have not changed at the level of the government and at the level of the performance of the current political authority. This meeting also proves the old renewed Saudi interest in Christians in general and Maronites in particular The sources reveal that the Kingdom is betting on the role of Christians in Lebanon in the cultural issue and the identity of Lebanon, and reconnecting Lebanon with the world and its Arab surroundings, and getting it out of the isolation caused by the ruling political authority. Indicating the directions of the next stage, especially since the meeting of Maarab and before that of Bkerke confirmed the positioning of a Christian politician keen on the best relations with Arab countries and Saudi Arabia, with the repercussions of this alliance on the establishment of a strong, capable and independent state with its decisions.
Informed sources confirm that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is open to everyone, of course everyone is keen on the national interest and the common interest between Lebanon and Saudi Arabia. Shared between Beirut and Riyadh on the other hand.
While all efforts aimed at bringing Lebanon back to its normal position crystallize, and waiting for the remarkable movement of the French and American ambassadors who visited the Saudi ambassador today before heading to a meeting with Foreign Minister Zina Aker to become clear, it remains that attempts at economic treatment are continuing and the proposals that came out of the meeting Maarab will begin to chart a way out of the crisis of closing the Saudi borders to Lebanese products, according to standards that protect the Lebanese economy on the one hand and at the same time protect the security of the Kingdom.
