The New Yorker: Lebanese PM «Repeatedly Slapped» During Detention in Riyadh

Local Editor

Revelations regarding Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri during his detention by the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman in Saudi Arabia had surfaced in a report by The New Yorker.

Upon reaching the Kingdom, the Lebanese PM was held for eleven hour, according Dexter Filkins who cited two former American officials still active in the region.

"The Saudis put him in a chair, and they slapped him repeatedly," one of the officials said.

"At the end, in a surreal video that was played on Saudi television, Hariri, looking exhausted and drawn, read a resignation speech," Filkins said, as if implying there was truth behind Hariri's beating.

However, in the report, Filkins explained that "When Hariri was summoned to meet MBS, he expected a warm reception from the royal family."

"Saad was thinking that all his problems with MBS would be solved," Filkins quoted an aide to Hariri as saying.

Though, things didn't turn out how Hariri had expected!
One does not hesitate to wonder whether in his work with the White House, is the Saudi Crown Prince driving out extremism, or merely seizing power for himself.

In his report, Filkins shed light on the policies of both, Jared Kushner - the former White House Adviser and son-in-law of US President Donald Trump - and MBS in the region.

Source: The New Yorker, Edited by website team