Lebanese Prime Minster Saad Hariri was due to head from Beirut to Dubai on 7 October to attend an investment conference, as Gulf Co-operation Council states mull fresh requests for bailouts from a crisis-hit economy which is running perilously short of dollars. It may reflect an upturn in interest in a difficult neighbour from states who have found some recent efforts to get more closely involved backfiring – most notably and embarrassingly including Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman’s infamous detention of Hariri, when in November 2017 the Lebanese PM was forced to read out a resignation statement.