A <a href="https://www.thenationalnews.com/tags/saudi-arabia" target="_blank">Saudi</a> citizen has been <a href="https://www.thenationalnews.com/tags/kidnapping" target="_blank">kidnapped</a> in Beirut but the motive for the abduction was not immediately clear, <a href="https://www.thenationalnews.com/tags/lebanon" target="_blank">Lebanon's</a> Interior Minister Bassam Mawlawi and security officials said on Monday. The kidnapped man works for Saudi national airline <a href="https://www.thenationalnews.com/tags/saudia/" target="_blank">Saudia</a> and the kidnappers demanded a $400,000 ransom, state-run Saudi TV station Al-Ekhbariya reported. Beirut officials said the man was taken about midnight on Saturday on the road leading to the city's Rafic Hariri International Airport, and search operations were under way to find him. The officials gave no further details. Mr Mawlawi tweeted that members of the intelligence department of Lebanon’s police have been searching for the Saudi citizen since Sunday. He did not release the Saudi's name, but said authorities were following the case with the Saudi ambassador to Beirut, Walid Bukhari. “We are working with an iron fist” to liberate the kidnapped person, Mr Mawlawi tweeted. He said that those behind the kidnapping would be punished. Saudi Arabia asked its diplomatic staff in Lebanon to stay home after the kidnapping. Saudi Arabian and Lebanese relations have suffered in recent years because of the dominance of the Iran-backed Hezbollah over the Lebanese establishment. Lebanon has witnessed a rise in crime since 2019, when the country's economic system crashed under the weight of state corruption and mismanagement by the ruling elites. Its currency has also collapsed, crippling the banking system.
