Saudi envoy quits Lebanon amid attack warnings

BEIRUT (AFP) - The ambassador of Saudi Arabia, a leading supporter of Lebanon's beleaguered Western-backed government, has left Beirut in the face of attack warnings, a senior Lebanese official said.

Abdel Aziz Khoja left on August 17 after the embassy formally notified the Lebanese foreign ministry of a "threat of attack against the ambassador's residence, the embassy or other Saudi interests in Lebanon," the official said.

The Saudi embassy declined all comment but Khoja told the Saudi-owned Asharq Al-Awsat daily that "there were threats against Saudi embassy and against my person."

The ambassador had already been threatened four or five times in
the past, the London-based paper added.

Oil-rich Saudi Arabia is a key financier of Lebanon and a staunch backer of the government of Prime Minister Fuad Siniora.

Khoja had been involved in efforts to broker an end to the rift with pro-Syrian factions that has paralysed Siniora's legislative agenda.

Early last week, he held talks with the pro-Syrian speaker of parliament, Nabih Berri, who has refused to recognize the Siniora government's legitimacy since six pro-Syrian ministers quit last November.

A member of the appointed Saudi Shura (Consultative) Council pointed the finger at Syria, claiming that proxies of Damascus in Lebanon could be behind the alleged threats.

"Syria is not blameless with regard to these threats. Syria's agents in Lebanon ... could be behind these threats," Mohammad al-Zulfa told AFP.

But while he added that "it is in the interest of Syria to heighten tensions" in Lebanon, he said he does not want to "directly accuse Syria and its security apparatus."

Riyadh and Damascus were recently involved in a tit-for tat tirade.

Syrian Vice President Faruq al-Shara aroused Saudi ire for suggesting that the oil-rich kingdom's regional influence was almost in a state of paralysis.

Riyadh retorted that Damascus, already in US sights for failing to do enough to end the conflict in neighbouring Iraq, was trying to stoke disorder in the region.

Lebanon has been hit by a wave of attacks in recent years targeting anti-Syrian politicians, most infamously the 2005 murder of five-time prime minister Rafiq Hariri, a billionaire businessman who held joint Lebanese and Saudi citizenship.