Simmering tension between the governments of tiny Lebanon (pop. 6m), the most religiously diverse country in the Middle East, and regional super power Saudi Arabia (pop. 32m) has escalated recently, worsening the already bad security situation across the region.
On Nov. 4, Lebanon’s Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri, a longtime beneficiary of Saudi support, astonished many after vanishing two weeks earlier and then announcing his resignation while in Saudi Arabia.