March 03, 2025 - 5:19 AM
BEIRUT (AP) — Lebanon's president said Monday that he hopes to strengthen ties with Saudi Arabia during a visit to the kingdom following years of strained relations between the countries.
Joseph Aoun became Lebanon's first head of state to visit Riyadh in six years.
Saudi Arabia has been vocal about its concerns over the Iran-backed militant Hezbollah group and Lebanon's positions on some regional issues. In recent years, it imposed a travel and import ban on Lebanon.
Aoun's appointment as president as well as that of a diplomat and former head of the International Criminal Court, Nawaf Salam, as prime minister are both seen as major blows to Hezbollah.
As relations slowly thaw, Lebanon hopes that Saudi Arabia will lift the travel ban on the cash-strapped country, restore trade and help its reconstruction efforts after the war between Hezbollah and Israel left southern and eastern Lebanon in ruins.
Aoun was quoted as saying that his visit was an “opportunity to emphasize the depth of Lebanese-Saudi relations and also an occasion to express Lebanon’s appreciation for the role played by the kingdom in supporting Lebanon’s stability, safety, and the regularity of the work of its constitutional institutions.”
Tensions between Lebanon and Saudi Arabia led to a diplomatic crisis in 2021. Riyadh was critical of Lebanese authorities’ failure to combat drug smuggling and imposed sanctions following televised remarks by Lebanon’s information minister in which he criticized Riyadh’s war in Yemen against the Houthis.
Aoun last week told Saudi Arabia's Asharq News that Riyadh would reactivate a $3 billion package for the Lebanese army. Lebanon is scrambling to build its army and deploy troops along its borders as part of a fragile U.S.-brokered ceasefire deal in November with Israel.
Aoun’s one-day visit is his first trip abroad as president after Lebanese parliament elected him in January, and comes after Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan’s traveled to Beirut.
News from © The Associated Press, 2025