BEIRUT: Lebanon’s outgoing prime minister who unexpectedly resigned during a trip to Saudi Arabia met with Saudi King Salman on Monday as speculation continued to swirl over his surprising move.

The official Saudi Press Agency (SPA) carried photos of the two meeting at one of the Riyadh palaces but there was no indication when Saad Hariri would return to Lebanon.

The resignation threw Lebanon’s fragile government into disarray. President Michel Aoun, who must accept the resignation for it to be valid, said in a statement on Saturday that he would await Hariri’s return to consider the matter.

On Monday, the Lebanese president held a meeting with ministers and top security officials at Baabda palace, telling them that political leaders had been responsive to calls for calm.

“He stressed that security, economic, financial, and political stability is a red line,” Justice Minister Salim Jreissati said after the meeting.

Aoun will take no steps to decide on whether to accept the resignation before Hariri returns from abroad, said Jreissati, who is politically aligned with Hezbollah.

“The president is waiting for Hariri’s return to hear from him personally,” he said. “This indicates a sovereign vision... and that the resignation must be voluntary in every sense.”

SPA said four government ministers attended Monday’s meeting between Salman and Hariri, including Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir and Minister for Gulf Affairs Thamer al-Sabhan, who predicted on Lebanon’s MTV station last week that “astonishing developments” were coming for Lebanon.

Hariri stunned the Lebanese with his resignation on Saturday and the haltingly delivered televised statement from the kingdom fuelled speculations. In the speech, he accused Iran of meddling in Arab affairs and the Iran-backed Lebanese militant group Hezbollah of holding Lebanon hostage.

Hezbollah’s leader Hassan Nasrallah, Hariri’s top political rival at home, speculated on Sunday that Saudi Arabia had forced Hariri to resign amid the deepening Saudi-Iran rivalry.

Monday’s SPA photos appeared aimed at dispelling rumours, acknowledged by the press agency, that the prime minister was being held in Saudi Arabia against his will.

A photo released by the Lebanese government last week showed Hariri with the Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, during a meeting in Riyadh.

The Saudi heir to the throne has been moving fast to consolidate power and has been overseeing an unprecedented wave of arrests over the weekend of dozens of the country’s most powerful princes, military officers, influential businessmen and government ministers.

Published in Dawn, November 7th, 2017