Though he did not directly say so, US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson’s warning was aimed directly at Sunni Saudi Arabia and Shi’ite Iran, whose rivalry has already wrought upheaval in Syria, Iraq, Yemen, and Bahrain.
Prime Minister Saad Hariri’s shock resignation while in Saudi Arabia has led to a week of mounting tensions which threatens to break the country’s delicate coalition government.
The Lebanese unity government that he formed a year ago includes Hezbollah members – the result of a tacit Saudi-Iranian agreement to protect Lebanon from other proxy wars in the region.
In televised remarks from Riyadh the PM said that he was stepping down because of an unspecified threat to his life.
He accused Iran and its Lebanese ally Hezbollah of taking over Lebanon and destabilising the wider region.
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Hezbollah, in turn, claimed that Saudi Arabia detained Mr Hariri and forced his resignation, with leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah saying the move was aimed at destabilising the country.
The act, he said, was a declaration of war by Saudi Arabia.
The accusations were echoed yesterday by Lebanon’s president Michel Aoun, who reportedly claimed Hariri had been “kidnapped” and must be offered diplomatic immunity.
Aoun had rejected the idea that Harari had resigned of his own volition, saying last week: “The obscurity surrounding the condition of Prime Minister Saad Hariri since his resignation a week ago means that all positions and actions declared by him or attributed to him do not reflect the truth”
Saudi Minister for Gulf Affairs Thamer al-Sabhan warned earlier this month that his government would deal with Lebanon as a hostile state as long as Hezbollah was in the Lebanese government.
On the day of Mr Harari’s resignation, Saudi forces shot down a ballistic missile fired from Yemen and aimed for Riyadh.
Saudi Arabia accused Iran of “direct military action”, claiming the missile was supplied by Iran and fired by Hezbollah, and warned its citizens to leave Lebanon immediately. Other Gulf nations followed suit.
Iran denied it had been directly involved.
Tillerson said Mr Hariri should return to the country to make his resignation “official”, but added that there was no indication that he was being held against his will, though the US was “monitoring” the situation.
He added: “There is no legitimate place or role in Lebanon for any foreign forces, militias or armed elements other than the legitimate security forces of the Lebanese state.”