On November 7, the Al-Akhbar daily carried the following report by Ibrahim al-Amin: “Yesterday, the suspicious regarding the fate of PM Sa’d al-Hariri were confirmed. Al-Akhbar learned from sources closely connected to the prime minister that the man has been placed under house arrest hours following his arrival to Al-Riyadh last Friday. Until this point, he is still present in a separate location from his family’s place of residence while a Saudi security team is managing his security just like the case of the arrested Saudi princes and ministers.

“The sources said that, when he arrived to Al-Riyadh, Al-Hariri was asked to head to the Ritz Carlton hotel complex to hold meetings there before being transferred to the Al-Yamama Palace to meet with King Salman. When he reached the hotel, he was surprised to see exceptional security measures. A few minutes later, he realized he was under arrest. He was then transferred to a villa at the complex rather than the hotel itself where around 49 Saudi princes, ministers and businessmen were being held. These too had been hastily summoned to Al-Riyadh to hold “business meetings” with the king and crown prince. There, they were all held for investigations on corruption related charges.

“According to the sources, the Saudi security services confiscated the phones of Al-Hariri and his security team. The members of the security team were given the choice of returning to Beirut and, in this case, anyone who leaves the complex won’t be able to return. Based on Al-Hariri’s request, four of his guards led by Officer Mohammad Diab headed to his house to remain with his wife and children. The head of the guards, Abd al-Arab and one personal assistant remained with Al-Hariri in the same villa.

“Everyone was informed about the rules of the stay with respect to abstaining from circulating in the hotel and from communicating with the staff and security officers. They were linked to a Saudi security officer in a nearby office where they could head several times per day to check their phones provided that they could only use them to respond to Whatsapp messages. They were also allowed to make phone calls provided that they do not discuss their whereabouts or circumstances under the risk of being deprived from additional communications.

“After meeting with a high ranking Saudi security officer and Minister Thamer al-Sabhan, Al-Hariri was handed the resignation statement, which had been written by the royal court. He was allowed to review it twice before recording it, while insisting that he cannot contact anyone to explain the backdrop of this step. Al-Sabhan informed Al-Hariri that he will be explaining the situation To Whom It May Concern in Beirut and that the assistants of the prime minister must not come to Al-Riyadh now. Al-Hariri handled this personally via a number of messages to his office director, Nader al-Hariri and some Future movement officials.

“After that, Al-Hariri was informed that he will be subjected to an investigation as a witness and as a Saudi citizen rather than the Lebanese prime minister. He was questioned about files dating back to the phase when Khaled al-Tueijiri was head of the royal court during the term of former King Abdullah. Al-Hariri repeated what he had already said several months ago about these files, especially on the suspicions that he obtained commissions pertaining to the royal gift to Lebanon that amounts to one billion dollars as well as contracts obtained by Saudi Oger… Al-Hariri also repeated that all his properties in Saudi Arabia are mortgaged to the Saudi banks and that he only owns his house.

“And as Al-Hariri refused to hold a press conference or to leave Saudi Arabia, his escorts who had moved to his family house were told they need to decide whether they wanted to stay or return to Lebanon. Indeed, some of them returned yesterday. Although everyone in Beirut was astonished when Al-Hariri read his resignation statement, the phone calls that were conducted in the next 24 hours pushed the parties close to him to stir this matter with local and external sides. An agreement was reached on acting calmly and trying to secure a safe and decent exit for the prime minister from Saudi Arabia.

“President Michel Aoun and Speaker Nabih Birri tried to do that through a mediation with Egypt and Jordan only to no avail. In addition, MP Walid Jumblatt launched a mediation with the French and British authorities but this also failed. London even failed to obtain a permit for one of its diplomats in Al-Riyadh to meet with Al-Hariri at his residence, while the Americans refused to intervene to start with.

“Yesterday evening, it became known that the French mediation has failed and that the Saudi crown prince insisted that Al-Hariri cannot leave Al-Riyadh without pledging that he will not be changing his position. There was talk on keeping his family in Al-Riyadh as a hostage to prevent him from voicing out any political position that clashes with the resignation statement…

“The sources tackled the piece of news on King Salman receiving Al-Hariri at the Al-Yamama palace yesterday adding that Al-Hariri was transferred to the palace under a security escort and that the objective behind the meeting was to send a sign indicating that he is not one of the people who were arrested for corruption charges… The source stressed that “Al-Riyadh won’t be able to maintain Al-Hariri under house arrest for a long time and that it has to release him. However, the problem consists of the nature of the restrictions that will be imposed on him…””