Lebanon ties touch new lows

Agencies | Beirut

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

Expulsion of Lebanese Ambassadors by Saudi Arabia and Bahrain over inflammatory comments by Lebanese minister George Kordahi threw the Lebanese government into a new crisis amid calls for Kordhahi’s resignation.

Kuwait also yesterday recalled its envoy from Beirut.

The expulsion dealt a powerful blow to the Lebanese efforts to rekindle the strained Gulf ties, as it also reels from a crippling economic crisis in modern times.

Kuwait said it recalled its ambassador from Beirut in protest over comments critical of the Saudi-led intervention in Yemen.

The senior Lebanese diplomat has 48 hours to leave Kuwait.

Kordahi liking the Saudi-lead efforts as “external aggression” had pushed the ties to their worst possible lows since the 2017 detention in Riyadh of then-Lebanese premier Saad al-Hariri.

The former celebrity TV presenter said the long-running war was “futile” and called for it to end. Meanwhile, a Lebanese crisis group of ministers sat together yesterday to discuss the deepening diplomatic rift is yet to make any comments.

Prime Minister Najib Mikati asked Kordahi on Friday evening to consider Lebanon’s “national interest” but stopped short of asking for the resignation of Kordahi, who is backed publicly by Hezbollah militia.

Kordahi, a former TV show host, made the comments on a TV programme before he took over the post in September.

Kordahi is close to the Christian Marada Movement, an ally of the militant Hezbollah group.

Mikati expressed regret for the Saudi move and urged the kingdom to review its decision.

Mikati added that his government “categorically rejects” anything that harms the “deep brotherly relations” with Saudi Arabia. Kordahi also held a news conference in Beirut this week, refusing to apologise for the interview, which he said was on August 5.

The Arab League said yesterday it was concerned about the souring of Lebanese-Gulf relations and appealed to Gulf countries “to reflect on the measures proposed to be taken...in order to avoid further negative effects on the collapsing Lebanese economy”.

Crisis with Lebanon rooted in Hezbollah dominance

Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister said the latest crisis with Lebanon has its origins in a Lebanese political setup that reinforces the dominance of the Iran-backed Hezbollah armed group and continues to allow endemic instability.

“I think the issue is far broader than the current situation,” Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud said in a phone interview.

“I think it’s important that the government in Lebanon or the Lebanese establishment forges a path forward that frees Lebanon from the current political construct, which reinforces the dominance of Hezbollah.”

He said this setup “is weakening state institutions within Lebanon, in a way that makes Lebanon continue to process in a direction against the interests of the people of Lebanon.”

“We have no opinion about the government in Lebanon.

We have no opinion as to whether it stays or goes, this is up to the Lebanese people,” the minister, speaking from Rome where he was attending the G20 summit, said.