Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri announced his surprise resignation today, in a speech he held in Saudi Arabia.

“Iran’s meddling in the area will end,” said Hariri in the televised speech. “Hezbollah’s intervention has caused a lot of problems in the surrounding Arab countries, and I tell Iran and its followers that they have failed in meddling with the affairs of the Arab nation.”

The PM expressed fears of being assassinated, claiming that there was a plot to end his life, and that the current climate in Lebanon resembled that which preceded the assassination of his father, former Prime Minister Rafic Hariri.

Hariri was designated Prime Minister in November 2016, following a two-year period in which Lebanon failed to meet quorum in electing a president, until President Michel Aoun was elected in October 2016.

He had previously served as PM from 2009 to 2011.