The Saudi Dilemma

The crisis in Lebanon puts Saudi Arabia in an awkward position, bringing its foreign policy preferences into conflict with its domestic interests. Saudi Arabia wants Lebanon to remain stable and to this end, Riyadh has granted US$0.5bn for the country's reconstruction and has deposited US$1bn with the central bank to protect the currency. However, Saudi Arabia's attitude to Hizbollah is more complicated. For Riyadh's conservative Sunni-Wahhabi monarchy, the popularly elected Shi'a Islamist movement Hizbollah appears a threat to regional stability and even, indirectly, to its own domestic legitimacy. There are three main reasons for

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