Lebanon President, Michel Aoun has described as 'act of aggression' the continued detention of former Lebanon Prime Minister, Saad Hariri in Saudi Arabia. Aoun in a statement issued on Wednesday said there was no justification for his detention and called on Saudi Arabia to immediately release him. He said the refusal to set Hariri free amounts to holding top Lebanese official hostage.
The statement read in part ;
"We will not accept him remaining a hostage whose reason for detention we do not know. Nothing justifies Hariri's lack of return for 12 days. We, therefore, consider him detained."
According to Al Jazeera, Hariri, a Sunni Muslim politician and longtime ally of Saudi Arabia, suddenly announced his resignation as Lebanon's prime minister during a visit to Riyadh last week. The report said Hariri had tweeted on Tuesday that he would return to Lebanon soon after he met the visiting head of Lebanon's Maronite Christian Church in Riyadh, Patriarch Beshara al-Rai.
Hariri in his resignation speech accused Iran and Hezbollah of interfering in the internal affairs of the country, stressing that his decision was to avert possible assassination. He hinted that he feared the fate that befell his father could repeat itself hence his decision to resign.
Meanwhile, Aoun has also accused Saudi Arabia of detaining Hariri's family in their house.
