Lebanon blocks banned Bahrain group’s events in Beirut

Agencies | Beirut

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

Lebanon on Thursday banned Bahraini groups from holding two events in Beirut. Interior Minister Bassam Mawlawi said he was cancelling events organised by banned Bahraini figures that were due to take place on Friday and Monday.

“If these two events were to take place, they would undermine official Bahraini authorities and Gulf Arab states, thus blocking efforts by Lebanon to boost ties with these countries,” Mawlawi said in a statement carried by Lebanon’s National News Agency. He did not specify which groups had organised the events. Mawlawi said the events had been scheduled to take place at a hotel near Beirut Airport in the capital’s southern suburbs – a stronghold of Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah group.

In December, Lebanon ordered one of the country’s security agencies to deport non-Lebanese members of Al Wefaq. The order came after Al Wefaq held a news conference in Beirut on December 11.

Bahrain’s judiciary dissolved Al Wefaq, which has close ties to Hezbollah, in July 2016 for “harbouring terrorism”. Sheikh Ahmed Nasser Al Sabah, Kuwait’s Foreign Minister, visited Beirut last month and presented a list of proposals aimed at healing the rift between Lebanon and several GCC countries.