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Caretaker Premier Saad Hariri stressed on Thursday that the biggest challenge facing the Arab world is "Iran's persistent violations," rejecting the Iranian intervention in the internal affairs of Arab countries.
Hariri accused the Iranian authorities of trying to turn Lebanon and other Gulf states into an Iranian protectorate.

"Lebanon and several Arab countries, in the Gulf and probably outside the Gulf, are suffering… from the flagrant Iranian intervention in the Arab internal issues," Hariri said during the Saudi-Lebanese Forum.

The caretaker prime minister expressed fear over the attempt of some states and regional powers to invest in chaos, and "export various means of political, civil and security turmoil in order to destroy the unity of the Arab societies."

He said that the Arab leaders acted with wisdom to restrain the growing Iranian "security, political and financial influence in the Arab world."

"But it seems, with great regret, that the Iranian leadership understood this… as signs of weakness and surrender, so it decided to go to the extreme in infiltrating the Arab societies," Hariri remarked.

Stressing on the importance of the bilateral relations between Lebanon and Saudi Arabia, Hariri said "40 percent of Arab investments in Lebanon come from the Kingdom, and the number of Saudi tourists last year reached 10 percent of the total of tourists."