BEIRUT — Lebanon’s president, Michel Aoun, called on Saudi Arabia Saturday to clarify the reasons why the country’s prime minister has not returned home since his resignation last week, announced from the kingdom.
The United States and France expressed their support for Lebanon’s sovereignty and stability amid heightening tensions between Beirut and Saudi Arabia.
A political crisis has gripped Lebanon and shattered the relative peace maintained by its coalition government since Prime Minister Saad Hariri’s stunning announcement Nov. 4 from the Saudi capital that he was resigning.
Lebanese officials have insisted on the return home of Hariri from Saudi Arabia amid rumors he is being held against his will. Saudi officials have said that their measures against Lebanon are in response to the militant Hezbollah’s group support of anti-Saudi rebels in Yemen known as Houthis.
“The obscurity regarding Hariri’s conditions makes anything that he says or does not reflect truth,’’ Aoun said. It was an indication that Aoun does not recognize Hariri’s resignation.
In statements released by his office, Aoun called on Saudi Arabia ‘‘that is linked to us through deep brotherly and friendly relations to clarify the reasons that are preventing’’ Hariri from returning to Lebanon.
White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Washington calls upon ‘‘all states and parties to respect Lebanon’s sovereignty, independence, and constitutional processes.’’
In a separate development Saturday, the Israeli military said it shot down an unmanned aircraft that tried to infiltrate its airspace from neighboring Syria.
In a statement, the military said it intercepted the drone above the Golan Heights using a Patriot missile. The military said the drone was operated by the Syrian regime and was shot down in the demilitarized zone between the countries.
In September, Israel shot down an Iranian-made drone sent by the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah in the same area. Both Iranian and Hezbollah forces have been backing Syrian President Bashar Assad in the Syrian civil war.
Israel has warned that it will not accept a permanent presence of Iran or its allied militias near its border in postwar Syria.
Israel says that it expects any agreement ending the war in Syria to include a 12-mile buffer zone meant to keep away Iranian-backed militants. Israel has been closely watching Iran’s involvement in the war in neighboring Syria.
It fears Iran could use Syrian territory to stage attacks on Israel, or create a land corridor from Iran to Lebanon that could allow it to transfer weapons more easily to Hezbollah.
Saudi Minister for Gulf Affairs Thamer al-Sabhan warned earlier this month that his government would deal with Lebanon as a hostile state as long as Hezbollah was in the Lebanese government.
The Lebanese unity government that Hariri formed a year ago includes Hezbollah members — the result of a tacit Saudi-Iranian agreement to sideline Lebanon from the other proxy wars in the region.
Al-Sabhan blasted in a tweet late Saturday as laughable those expressing support and ‘‘love’’ for Hariri despite their previous opposition to him. He added that those who ‘‘sold out’’ Lebanon would soon be exposed.
Also Saturday, Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reported that French President Emmanuel Macron called Aoun expressing France’s commitment to Lebanon’s ‘‘unity, sovereignty and independence and to help it in preserving political and security stability.’’
Iran’s Foreign Ministry said Saudi Arabia is aiming to create unrest in Lebanon after doing so in the Gulf region and Yemen.
Bahram Qasemi, a spokesman for the ministry, said in comments carried by state news agency IRNA that the kingdom is trying to destabilize the region.
Aoun said that a marathon planned in Beirut on Sunday in which tens of thousands will participate should be ‘‘a national sports demonstration for solidarity with prime minister Hariri and his return to his country.’’
Last year Hariri took part in the marathon, wearing the number 3.
