Saudi Arabia tells Lebanon to hand over dissident who threatened Beirut embassy

Lebanese security officials held a joint press conference with the Saudi ambassador to Beirut today in the wake of threats made to the Kingdom’s diplomats by a Saudi dissident on Twitter. An audio recording threatening the Kingdom’s embassy in Beirut was recently attributed to Saudi dissident Ali bin Hashem bin Salman Al-Haji. Al-Haji allegedly vowed to “exterminate everyone” in the Beirut embassy in retaliation to threats he says Saudi intelligence leveled at his family. Saudi ambassador to Lebanon, Walid Al-Bukhari, said that the Kingdom had submitted an official diplomatic note to the Lebanese Foreign ministry asking Beirut to take the necessary legal measures in the wake of Al-Haji’s threats. Lebanon’s Interior Minister Bassam Al-Mawlawi reaffirmed his country’s commitments toward Saudi Arabia and the Arab Gulf states.