BEIRUT: Saudi diplomat Walid bin Abdullah Bukhari returned to Beirut on Wednesday following his official appointment as the Kingdom’s ambassador to Lebanon. Bukhari had served as the charge d’affaires of the Saudi Embassy in Lebanon since March 12 after Saudi authorities recalled the former ambassador, Walid Al-Yaacoub, to take on other duties. Before that, Bukhari served as minister plenipotentiary at the embassy. Speaking at the Beirut–Rafic Hariri International Airport, Bukhari thanked King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman for showing their trust in him as the Kingdom’s ambassador. “I hope to be at the discretion of our great leadership and to work under its guidance to strengthen joint cooperation between the Kingdom and Lebanon,” he said. “I also hope that we all seek to maintain the security, stability and sovereignty of Lebanon.”  Bukhari was welcomed at the airport by the ambassadors of Egypt, Iraq, the UAE, Kuwait, Oman, Sudan, Algeria, Tunisia, Palestine, Yemen, Morocco and the Arab League, as well as officials from the Lebanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He called on Arab diplomats to work together and achieve their “great mission in Lebanon.” Bukhari said: “We seek to create ambitious global partnerships and build strong international relations that are based on solid fundamentals, and we seek to achieve all this through a sustainable diplomacy based on human values to achieve security and international peace.” In the past two months, Bukhari visited different areas of Lebanon to inaugurate Saudi initiatives in the country.