Here we go again. The General Directorate for Narcotics Control thwarts an attempt to smuggle 14,400,000 amphetamine tablets hidden inside a shipment coming from Lebanon, an yet another attempt by smugglers after the earlier bid to traffic into the Kingdom 5 million pills of Captagon stuffed inside fruit imported from Lebanon too had been foiled. Saudi Arabia banned the import of Lebanese fruits and vegetables in April after a reported increase in drug smuggling from Beirut. And with this latest effort to flood the Saudi soil with amphetamine tablets, the Lebanon government's promise to fix these unacceptable practices against international laws and concepts seems to vanish into thin air. Saudi Arabia's Minister of Interior Prince Abdulaziz Bin Saud's assertive and forceful statement that "Kingdom's security is a red flag" characterizes a certain meaning and message to anyone who tries to or even thinks of destroying or even disturbing the stability and peace of Saudi Arabia. We are extremely proud of our security systems and its capacity to protect our community and lives with the endless and continual efforts to ensure the prevalence of stability and peace, and thus providing us a great secure grip. It is sad, but true that Lebanon's continual provocative acts against its neighbors is through one of the terror agencies that has caused damage, both internally and externally, with their selfish and callous behavior. Yes, Hezbollah, the devil that's backing the Iran-backed Houthi militia directly for a long time by helping it in its repeated efforts to attack Saudi Arabia, is the culprit. Now with their power play with narcotics they are indirectly, this time, trying to corrupt Saudi youth and families, and also hurt the nation's reputation, finances and the polity mindset by smuggling in drugs to make it easily available in our hands, in order to fulfill their nefarious plans with all these unethical and dishonorable actions, which will not pass easily. You just have to think of the secure system in place in the Kingdom and the wise options our leaders have taken against Lebanon. Believing that real strength and steadiness comes from inside, positive thoughts came to my mind despite the dark scenario created by the Lebanese effort. We need to highlight the next steps and contributions from our governmental departments, ministries and institutes to stop these practices of dependence and put the Saudi society on the road to self-efficiency. We need to think smartly to reach a high level of competence and this can be done by utilizing our human resources and media channels, industries and agricultural assets without a need to depend on outer recourses such as Lebanon. As individuals, we must do our roles by putting our country first and ourselves in the second place, and also by branding our Saudi identity in terms of professional development and standards expected in the domains of education, work performance and skills. Message to be noted: If you don't like our assertive flavor of speech and behavior, stop your violent methods against us!
