Saudi Foreign Minister says confident of reform under new Lebanon leaders

Saudi Arabia's top diplomat, on his country's first high-level visit to Beirut, said Thursday that he believed Lebanon's new leaders could spearhead long-sought reforms.

The international community has long demanded Lebanon enact reforms to unlock billions of dollars to boost the economy after a financial crisis took hold in 2019. During the meeting, Aoun thanked Saudi Arabia "for the efforts deployed to help Lebanon, especially by bringing an end to the presidential vacuum", an official statement said, adding that the visit had "brought hope".

Saudi Arabia, the Middle East's largest economy, was a major investor in Lebanon. Prince Faisal's visit comes ahead of a January 26 deadline to fully implement the truce that ended the recent fighting between Israel and Hezbollah.