✍WikiLeaks cable: Saudi Arabia proposes an Arab force with US and NATO cover to crush Hezbollah

In a cable from the American embassy in Riyadh published by WikiLeaks in December 2010, the Saudi foreign minister Saud al-Faisal proposed to the American diplomat David Satterfield in May 2008, after the events of 7 May, the formation of an Arab force to enter Beirut, for which the United States and NATO would provide transport, logistical support and naval and air cover, to prevent Hezbollah and Iran from taking control of Lebanon, and said Siniora "strongly supports the idea". The proposal was not carried out.

Note: Sending an Arab military force under NATO cover into the territory of a sovereign state requires a Security Council decision or the consent of the Lebanese constitutional authorities, that is parliament, not the endorsement of a prime minister alone. Had it been carried out, it would have turned the internal conflict into a regional war on Lebanese soil and made the state a party to a civil war instead of its arbiter.