Saudi Arabia Abandons Mediation Efforts in Lebanon

Saudi Arabia's foreign minister says his country has abandoned efforts to mediate Lebanon's political crisis. 

In an interview with Saudi-owned  Al Arabiya TV Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal said Saudi King Abdullah and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad had been in contact to help "end the whole Lebanon problem."

He said however that the Saudi king has decided to withdraw from those efforts. 

The foreign minister said if the situation reaches full separation and regional partition, then it could mean the end of Lebanon as a state that has been a model of peaceful cohabitation between different religions and ethnicities.

Lebanon has been embroiled in a political crisis for months over efforts by the United Nations to indict several prominent members of Hezbollah over  the 2005 assassination of the late Lebanese prime minister Rafiq Hariri.

Last week, Hezbollah and its allies quit Lebanon's Western-backed government because of tensions regarding the impending indictment.

A draft was handed Monday to the pre-trial judge.

The contents, however, have not been revealed and may not become public for weeks, as the judge decides whether there is enough evidence for a trial.

(From VOA)