Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam meets Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in the holy city of Mecca, Saudi Arabia, March 30, 2025. Saudi Press Agency/Handout via REUTERS

By Timour Azhari

RIYADH (Reuters) -Saudi Arabia plans imminently to boost commercial ties with Lebanon after Lebanese authorities demonstrated "efficacy" in curbing drug smuggling to the kingdom over the past months, a senior Saudi official said on Thursday.

Ties between Riyadh and Beirut have been strained for years due to the power of Iran-backed Hezbollah over Lebanese political and security affairs, but the kingdom sees an opening after the group was severely weakened by war with Israel last year.

Easing controls on imports, banned for years by Saudi Arabia, would be a first tangible sign of improvement, although Riyadh still wants to see the weak central government of Lebanon disarm Hezbollah - a demand Hezbollah has so far rejected.

"We will take imminent steps to bolster commercial relations between the two nations," said the Saudi official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

"The Lebanese government and security forces have demonstrated efficacy in curbing drug exports over recent months."

A delegation from the kingdom will soon visit Lebanon for discussions "to resolve the barriers hindering Lebanese exports to the Kingdom," the source said, without elaborating on specific measures that might be taken or sectors that might be affected.

"Our deepest gratitude goes to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and its leadership ... for its kind initiative today in announcing its readiness to take immediate steps to strengthen trade relations between our two countries and remove obstacles to Lebanese exports," the Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam said in a post on X.

In 2021, Saudi Arabia banned all imports from Lebanon, citing smuggling of the methamphetamine-like drug Captagon, which was produced in Lebanon and Syria.

That put further pressure on Lebanon's crumbling economy, already crushed by a 2019 financial crisis, with agricultural exports in particular stranded from traditional Gulf Arab markets.

Western and Arab states have long said Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's government and Hezbollah were behind the illicit production and trade in the drug, and huge factories were found in government-held areas of Syria and the border region where Hezbollah had a strong presence after Assad was toppled.

Hezbollah has denied involvement. Assad's government collapsed under a rebel offensive in December 2024.

The senior Saudi official said Lebanese President Joseph Aoun and Prime Minister Nawaf Salam, whose ascent to power was supported by Riyadh, had requested that the kingdom review its policy. The official said the Saudi government valued initiatives taken by the two leaders in the past months.

In September, Lebanon approved a landmark plan to disarm Hezbollah, starting south of the Litani River.

But implementation has been slow, due in part to logistical challenges and given fears that moving too quickly might instigate civil strife in a country with a long history of sectarian violence.

The United States has pressed the Lebanese government to move forward on the plan swiftly, with Israel saying Hezbollah was trying to rearm. Israel has continued to conduct near-daily strikes on what it says are Hezbollah targets, leaving many Lebanese feeling powerless and living in fear of the next attack.

"The new Lebanese administration's efforts to preclude the use of Lebanon as a platform for threats to Arab states’ security will yield advancements in bilateral relations," the senior Saudi official said.

(Reporting by Timour Azhari in Riyadh; Editing by Matthew Lewis)